


Who's A Good Killing Machine? :D

by Flat_King



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, Nonbinary Hange Zoë, Rated for swearing and a hint of gore, Titan Eren Yeager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:02:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27560449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flat_King/pseuds/Flat_King
Summary: Levi meets titan Eren outside the walls.Slight plot with a pinch of crack.
Relationships: Levi & Eren Yeager, Levi/Eren Yeager
Comments: 57
Kudos: 633





	1. A Day Worse Than Stepping In Liquid With Socks On.

The Scouts mission had been going fairly well, nobody had died, they hadn't encountered many titans and they hardly had to break formation. 

It _was_ all fine.

Too fine apparently.

Levi has no clue as to the point of this mission. If he didn't know any better he'd think Erwin is so high of his gas fumes he thought the titans was shitty neighbours that blast outdated poor excuse of music that might as well have been raido static ear rape, **at 3 AM**. And it was the scouts duty to tell them off like some middle-aged parent who treated sleep like gold.

Speaking of sleep, where was Levi's? He couldn't seem to find it. Oh right. Now he remembers, it was whisked away in the night wind, because the reason as to why the mission had been going 'fairly well _'_ is because no one is actually capable of staying alive so Levi has to make sure he does it for them. Therefore it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that the single sleep deprived soldier is struggling to reach his normal set of standards. 

Everyone is trying to make up for him by dealing with troubles themselves, so he foolishly trusted them through his lack of a functioning brain and that led him to now.

He alone, with little to no fucking gas. 

He decides to stay put for now, it's better to let them find him. But then again it was trusting those idiots that got him here in the first place. 

Levi felt the vibrations rippling through the trees as heavy feet pound against the floor. Could this day get any worse!!? Oh but let's not forget, can this day get any worse for Levi specifically, the others are probability following Erwin's lead and inhaling the gas supply.

He inspects his last set of already dulled blades that are no longer fit for killing titans. All he can do is get to higher ground.

While he's in the middle of progressing to safety something unexplainable takes place. A fithteen metre titan just fucking body slammes into that greedy bastard.

What in all hell.

He starred in silent shock as this crackhead of a titan brutally pounds on the others neck. The fucking head flies off! It literally left the ground because of the raw power this beefy titan excrets.

The muscled beast then pounces onto another titan and then another, and another. It's like titan dominoes. They're queueing up for the slaughter.

He then looks up at Levi, thoroughly drenched in steaming blood and then just casually strolls away.

He is thoroughly awake for the rest of the mission.

******

It had been a long ass time since Levi saw that titan again, he's not sure he wants to. That thing is unkillable

He debated telling Hanji about the titan's odd behaviour, but decided against it. They'd stop at nothing to find it and capture it, many good soldiers would die before they'd even get a lead to track the thing down.

Levi pushes down the dread of meeting the creature again as he rides on. They're on another mission. Yay. He just hopes the heavy lifting won't smother him again, but that's the same as asking Wall Maria to rebuild itself.

The Scouts venture into the forest and Levi pushes back any thoughts or worries that enter his head. Now's the time to be focused.

It comes to Levi as second nature to inform his squad of danger.

"Left center, do not engage" He isn't with his usual squad, he can still see the determination in their faces.

"I repeat do NOT FUCKING ENGAGE." For crying out loud just listen to him.

"If any of you think about leaving your horse, I'm gonna make you wish you were in a human ball of vomit." That gets their attention. Fucking finally, their idiotic brains remember just who's in charge.

He leads his squad right and prays there won't be another bacteria spawning monster.

. . .

Shit it's unavoidable, there was already a titan closing in behind them and fucking two other in front. Turning sideways is too risky, the titan behind will get them.

Fuck. Fuck. FUCK

"Prepare to fight brats."

"But I thought-"

"You thought when we only had one, open you're goddamn eyes! On my command-" but it was too late, they're only rookies, of course they'd take off as soon as they got the chance.

Levi leaps and swings over to the two titans, flipping over branches and diving down to slice the bigger of the two. He doesn't bother with the smaller one. It's only a 7 meter, it would have been a problem when they were on ground but his priority is shifted to his squad as more bloodthirsty creatures drawn in by the screams of their brethren.

He turns around and mentally counts his squad members. One, two, three, four. Safe for now, he directs his attention to the bigger problem at hand.

Well he would have if a fucking idiot didn't jump down to kill the seven meter. Moron. 

By the time Levi dirtys his blades, the soldier was already gone. Cold, glazed over eyes flicker from the example to the dark looks spread across his squads' faces, either they'll listen to him now or try harder to avenge their comrade.

"Move forward, we'l-"

"AHHHHGHHH" A scream sounds nearby, his squad are disturbingly aware of who it belongs to.

"We have to help them come on."

"But what happened to-"

"He attacked alone, we're not alone." The heroic wisdom was complemented with a smile. Just what Levi needed, the self selected leader was on his squad. He knows who has more trust.

"STAY PUT." Murmurs of disagreement wash over him.

"We get to the safe house, is that understood." He isn't asking.

"Is that understood." He already knows the response. They're only rookies.

Just as expected they all begin to silently nod at each other and take off, two of them trail behind the 'leader'. The titans headed his way broke off at the sight of four, no three humans leaving one behind. 

Levi wants to rip his hair out in frustration as he follows the group.

"If they don't die now, I'll kill them later." 

He hooks into the nearest titan, carving a chunk of its neck out. He jumps from titan to titan, flipping over branches, swinging around single minded heads. He hears a few heavy weights crash to the ground behind him

"So the idiots are good for something." Levi doesn't completely blame them though. He was the same when he first joined, it's unfortunate every soldier must see death to know what's important.

More and more titans close in, creating a fleshy colosseum. Levi faces his next challenger, only to have his focus shift as another soldier gets torn apart across the ring. He uses his titan as a jumping platform in order to reach his teammate.

He was able to drag a single soldier away from the slaughter, but he shouldn't have bothered. The rookie's lower half is crushed and washed with crimson liquid. The bones are undoubtedly broken and embedded into vital organs. Even if Levi gets them both out alive, this soldier would die on the journey home. Pulling a dagger from his boot he carefully carves the wings of freedom from her jacket, before ending her pain permanently. He tucks the wings into his jacket and wipes the blood off his dagger where it's returned to his boot.

He's yanked from his grieving as a 10 metre barreled into the tree he's occupying. The unexpected collision causes Levi to topple over, by pure instinct he shoots out wires and propels himself to the nearest tree. The sloppy attempt causes an awkward landing, he loudly curses and hopes his ankle isn't broken.

The abnormal takes a running stance one again and crashes into the tree while Levi is inspecting his injuries. The sudden force slams his face into the tree bark. He grips the tree desperately as he waits for his vision to still so he can grapple to safety, this time not stopping. 

He was mentally mapping out his route when an enraged roar vibrated through the woods. The abnormals still as a muscular figure pushes into the ring, successfully killing two titans in the process. He ferociously charges through titans, ripping out their spines, crushing their heads and tearing their napes out like a rabid bear. Blood and guts gruesomely decorate his body and fall from his mouth.

Levi did a double take as his head cleared. Oh shit. OH SHIT. That's the same- **OH HELL NO**. 

Locking eyes with the titan triggered Levi's survival instinct. 

With his head still pounding, Levi got the fuck out of there. And with good reason, because that murderous beast pilled up the last few corpses and used them as a fucking jumping pad. He launches himself to where Levi had been standing, confused when he could no longer see the small soldier.

Levi had zipped up to the tallest tree within reach, he forces his breathing to slow as he watched the freak of nature frantically search his surroundings. Then he stops and sniffs the air? Titans can't smell them can they? He's so dead.

He follows his nose, which leads him to Levi's tree. He then peered into the leaves, searching for him.

The creature is standing directly under the human, the leaves block Levi's view. Suddenly he feels the tree move, ever so slightly. At first he assumes it's trying to shake him out the tree, all that would do is worsen his headache.

However when he felt the vibrations again, but closer, that is when Levi risks moving the leaves to see what on earth is happening. He. Was. Climbing.

Levi scrambles to get out of his hiding spot to get away from a horrible horrible death.

The titan waits until Levi's in an unbalanced position to violently shake the tree.

Levi tumbled off a branch, prepared to shoot wires, when a giant hand enclosed around him. No NO **NO.**

He struggles but he's unable to reach his swords with his arms pinned to his sides.

The titan climbs back down to the floor, and Levi's struggling continues.

The creature stares at the tiny human with glee. He brings one large finger up to pet Levi's head, he starts purring in an attempt to calm his new catch.

Levi froze as the unwelcome hand gently caressed his head. The titan seems to enjoy petting him, which Levi detestes with every fiber of his body, but he recognises that the other could crush him with little to no effort, so he forces his muscles to relax and makes an effort not to move away from his predator. 

Said predator beames with happiness at the sight of his human relaxing. He purrs joyfully and repositions his grip.

Levi took this opportunity to try and struggle out of the beast's hold. He can just about reach his sword handle, he pulls it into his grasp and fires the now exposed hook. It embeds itself into the titan's chest, Levi slices off a few fingers and uses the hook to drag himself out of the titan's grasp. He retracted the hook and shot both wires away from his capture.

The titan was slightly shocked at his now humanless hand, but his face quickly morphed into frustration as he huffed out steam and pinched the cloak hood of the fleeing human.

The sudden restraint caused Levi to lie almost horizontal in midair, he's completely vulnerable.

Meaty fingers pry swords away from Levi, he can't get enough momentum to cut the digits with slightly dulled blades. He curses as his weapons are ripped free from his ODM gear. The lack of trigger causes his wires to retract. He is utterly defenceless.

The titan turns to look at him, annoyance and slight anger painted on his face.

Levi feels himself slowly slipping from his cloak, with no way to avoid the ground he desperately tries to grab the fingers pinching his cloak. 

A large hand carefully closed around Levi's body, giving him support.

Levi levels the titan with a dark glare at being manhandled, but slowly begins to calm down once he assesses the chances of him being eaten are practically zero.

That didn't make it any less humiliating when he's gently cradled against a solid chest.


	2. Levi's New Pet Dog

Levi is struggling to believe the situation he's in. He's lying on a titan's chest whose hands are cupped around him forming a warm cocoon. 

How the fuck!???!?

Well he obviously knows how, but that doesn't make the situation any easier to understand. If he ever makes it back to the walls, Hanji will go crazy.

Levi sighs, he doesn't know if it's possible to get back, that bloody titan broke his gear and is keeping him as a fucking pet.

He turns to look out of the distant entrance of the cave he was brought to. It's night out, all titans are sound asleep. 

Levi feels his eyelids close against his will, the enemy is sleeping and he's warm and cosy...best to catch some sleep and figure out his situation tomorrow.

*****

"We don't know he's dead. You know better than anyone just how stubborn that shorty is!"

"I don't want to face it either but we must accept the facts and move on." 

"GAUGH!!" Erwin calmly watches as Hanji kicks a chair over.

"I appreciate your concern Hanji, but Levi's team is down and he went missing in a titan infested area. We can't risk soldiers' lives just to prove what we already know." Erwin sighs tiredly for the 50th time that evening, while Hanji calms themself and quickly scrambles up a plan.

"If I find enough soldiers willing to risk their life for him, I'll lead a rescue mission." Erwin's facade cracks a small bit, his logic at war with his emotions. 

"Hanji we can't. Gaugh....I'll need signatures at the bottom of a contract." Hanji screams in triumph, they have been fighting this case literally all day.

"But look Hanji, I hope you understand I'm unable to join. You know as well as I, that rescue missions for a presumed dead soldier are forbidden. . . So I-. . . I'll cover for you." Hanji fails to hold back tears.

"Thank you, Erwin." They see his cold persona break further. He dismisses them before they both break down and completely discard any respect they have for Levi's cleaning rules. "5. No snot on clothing". That's actually a rule he stated, there's a board of rules Levi deems necessary for everyone to follow. Ridiculous. That stupid clean freak- 

Hanji's off again, they run to their office before they cradle Levi's rule board in the fetal position.

Right Hanji just needs soldiers now, who will lay their lives down for a M.I.A man, can hold their own and can keep secrets... This may be harder than Hanji first tho-OH well there's already four people who fit those criteria. 

*******

Levi wakes up to bright turquoise eyes staring through his soul, naturally he glares in return.

"No matter have doe eyed you are it's still intensely creepy to watch people fucking sleep." The titan simply cockes it's head. It's just like a filthy puppy, Levi grimaces at the thought of a grimy titan ever being slightly cute.

Levi's attention is brought to his legs as the titan shifts restlessly, bumping the human's legs in the process.

"Off fuckwit." Of course the titan doesn't understand.

Levi groans as he slowly pushes himself up, deliberately making his moves obvious so the possessive sack of shit doesn't think he's making a runner for freedom. 

Large hands hesitantly lift off him and tensely hover in the air.

He makes sure to face the titan when he sits up, so...this thing really needs a name, he'll deal with that later, right now he's busy making sure the nameless beast knows what he's doing.

The Captain first checks his head for any sign of injury from when he face slammed the tree yesterday. His forehead felt bruised but otherwise his face he's fine. Now, leg time. Levi carefully wiggles his boot off-

"Shit." and peels back the sock. 

"Fuck." Holy Wall Maria, Levi's face twists into pain as he inspects his ankle and continues to let out strings of colourful language.

A concerned bag of filth worryingly pokes his shoulder.

"Get off fleabag, it's just sprained." He painfully pulls his garments back on, knowing full well he'll lose them otherwise. An oversized hand rests behind Levi, giving the injured man something to rest against. The bruised beauty attempts to bat it away, which just results in corpse breath huffed in his face.

"Disgusting vile creature" He spat out in fury, but Levi supposes he should thank the brutal being somewhat for kind of saving his life. All things considered Levi probably would have died, maybe. Point is he's surprisingly safe because of the titan he currently seated on.

Levi's first obstacle was trying to communicate with the thing, actions would obviously work better then language. Maybe if all goes well Levi could teach it a few simple commands. Like a fucking dog, he can't believe he's doing this.

His goal is to get the titan sitting up with Levi in his hand, this way they'll be able to see each other more clearly. This is ridiculous.

He starts by turning around and trying to push the beast's hand flat, the titan curiously faces his palm up and watches the human struggle to crawl into the middle of it, unable to put pressure on one foot. The murderous puppy assists by lifting him up by his cloak, which Levi grumbles at.

Levi gestures an up motion with his hands, the titan's seams to sit up inorder to get more comfortable regardless. Whatever works, works. 

Once they can see each other clearly, Levi attempts communication...again. He widely swings his arm to move and point at himself.

"Levi." Auuuuugh names names names, better think of one quick. He moves to point at the titan.

"...Eren." Newly named Eren, uses his other arm to point at itself and lets out two short grunts, before pointing at Levi and letting out another grunt broken into two parts. Is it miniking how Levi speaks? He doesn't let the shock show on his face, he simply repeats in gestures to solidify they understand each other.

"Levi, Eren" This is crazy.

Eren beams at the sound of his new name.

A rumble interrupts the heart felt moment. Levi hunches over to hug his stomach. How does he explain to a creature that lives off of sunlight, that he needs food? THROUGH GESTURE!?!?

He groans and does his best to mime eating an apple. Eren just blinks at him. Okay then. He then just points to the entrance of the cave. Eren looks confused, not understanding how the two gestures are linked. Then a lightbulb chimes as he concludes his human is trying to leave him again. He grows in annoyance and angrily pushes Levi flat against his palm with his thumb. Try moving now.

"You sack of shit I need food, for fucks sake." Levi is painfully aware of Eren's thought process, he wiggles under the sudden weight. Yeah he's not going anywhere. 

Levi holds back a groan, he doesn't want Eren to think he's annoyed at not being granted freedom. That moron. He does his best to think of how to show he's not leaving. . . . . . . . . . .

AH, Eren recognised his swords and gear was how he got about yesterday, maybe removing it will persuade him? Levi wouldn't be able to move anyway, Eren broke his gear when he ripped off the swords, but he has no way of knowing that.

Levi begins the painful process of blindly feeling for the correct belts to undo. It doesn't help that his right shoulder is also pinned down, blindly undoing ODM gear was going to be challenging, but undoing ODM gear blind with his left hand!? Curse this clingy titan.

Eventually after a lot of struggling, he shoves the gear onto the floor, wincing when he hears the crash.

"Now get off me." It clicks in Eren's mind what his human is trying to display. He looks apologetic as he removes his thumb.

The kicked puppy recalled what Levi bazarlly wanted in the first place. He cradled him to his chest, mindful of the damaged foot, and made his way to the entrance of the cave. 

Levi knows of what used to be a safe house, back when they still had Wall Maria. Every safe house has canned food and sealed water for emergencies, how he was going to direct a titan there...he'll figure it out.

******

It turns out, figuring how to direct Eren surprisingly wasn't the problem, the problem was trying to find the godforsaken safe house. This journey was going to be very fucking long and very fucking painful. 

And. It. Is.

Neither of them have a clue as to where they're going. They walked around aimlessly for hours, the only good thing about the trip is the river they stumbled upon. At least Levi wasn't going to die of dehydration. They ended up resting for the night in a big ass tree Eren climbed. 

He's going to die in the company of a titan with separation issues.

******

"There's a safe house here, we can stay there overnight." Hanji violently pointed to a small house drawn on a seriously old map.

"It's made of stone, and has a lovely basement so Titans can't find us, neat huh?!" The Levi squad glanced around at each other. It turned out this 'big team' Hanji was putting together was just them and the Levi squad, they all agreed they were skillful enough and knew each other effectively to accomplish a rescue mission, much to Erwin's displeasure. A smaller team also meant the likelihood of this securet getting out is very low.

It was a lot of darn work convincing Erwin this is a good idea...again.

". . .If the Captain is alive, do you think he'd be there?" Petra asked with hope laced into her words.

A moment of tense silence washes over them all. None wants to think about the possibility of Levi not surviving but it's something they have to prepare for.

"We'll just have to check and hope. We'll leave as soon as we can, I predict two days at earliest."

*******

A distressed whine breaks the death glare Levi's fixed onto nature in general. He turns around to question what's bothering 15 meters of raw muscle.

Eren's face screams of displeasure, his nose in particular is twitching and scrunched up in disgust. He presses the Captain to his chest, blocking his view of his surroundings.

Levi's fuming at first, but curiosity of the creature's odd behaviour gets the better of him, so he settles for a mild annoyance. His usual mood. 

Maybe Eren's hiding him from other titans? No he's deliberately blocking his view, despite Eren's best efforts, Levi manages to peek through fingers.

The scene before him was familiar, blood stained grass, rotting limbs and ODM gear littered the floor. He had extremely mixed feelings about this, on one hand it's where a brutal slaughter took place, on the other he has an idea of his location and on the third mutant hand, Eren recognizes this would be an emotional sight for Levi. How bazar. Titans don't grieve, so they shouldn't recognise other creatures do. He decides to let it slide for now, he's got more important things to focus on, like the whereabouts of this bloody safehouse.

When the ball of spite was finally released into open air again, he went straight back to work of studying his surroundings for any traces of- HORSE TRACKS. Levi has never been so happy to see a set of faded tracks. His shoulders sag in releaf.

"Thank fuck, we can finally get out of this shitty forest." He points to the opposite direction the horse tracks are facing with more energy than normal. Eren catches on and joyfully trudes in the new direction, simply happy because Levi is happy.

As soon as they escaped nature's prison, Levi had a solid understanding of their position. He directed them to the location he could find with his eyes closed. Solitary, quiet and cleanliness (back in the day) perfect for avoiding abnormal freaks. Granted moving all the way to Wall Maria may had been a bit far just to avoid people, but the further away the better.

He had no doubt his heaven had birthed a thick layer of dust and grime. Suddenly the idea of dying with a not really clean titan is more appealing.


	3. Relax, Quit Screaming, Chill Out.

HELL YEAH IT'S A FUCKING PARTY!!! 

HE GOT CANNED FOOD.

HE GOT BOTTLED WATER.

AND HE GOT A TITAN AS A PET.

LEVI IS **L I V I N G.**

He rushes to grab a few essentials, before hobbling to a balcony. He doesn't need a concerned titan ripping down the building just because he took too long getting life sustenance.

"Oi Eren." The worry wort was reluctant to A. Let Levi out of his sight and B. Allow the injured man to walk about alone. His body very visibly relaxed and the unconscious whimpering stopped when Levi quickly came back unharmed.

He carefully sits down on the balcony, almost eye level with Eren's sitting hunched over form. Levi rips open a can, unable to resist food after almost two days with nothing but water. This, to Levi's shame, led to undignified sloppy eating. He never thought he'd see the day when he'd break one of his own rules "3. Eat food properly you shitty toddlers".

Eren watches the tiny human desperately consume the contents of the miniscule metal cylinder. Of course titans don't require food, but animals do. His human is eating with the same urgency many woodland creatures do, huh strange. He always assumed humans were just like titans but smaller and smarter, however they appear to be more similar to animals. 

Levi consciously wiped his face in an attempt to reform himself from his sin. He stares up at Eren's ugly mug.

"Stay put, I'll be back." He planned to turn around and gather more food, but Eren apparently has other plans. He feels a really fucking big hand scoop him up. This is becoming a habit. It shouldn't.

At much as Levi hates to admit it, the large lug is very lovely and warm. He would prefer to be wrapped up in blankets resting in some room only a few meters metres away, but you don't get what you wish for. 

With a satisfied stomach and a lack of stress from being lost, he drifted off quite peacefully to sleep. That's not something Levi's had in a long, long time.

*****

Levi was in dream land, it's amazing, he's practically high. Maybe he is high. Oooooooooooh that's naughty, Captains shouldn't be high, bad bad Levi. He guesses he's got to dish himself a punishment. . . Clean your office Levi.

"Waaaaait I am cleaning my office." Levi catches himself before he lets out an uncharacteristic giggle. WHOOOooooah he's definitely had something.

Wait NO HE LIE!!

Levi's not cleaning his office. He's cleaning Erwin's!?

That filthy bastard, does he not know of all the dust and greece collecting under the shelves. Stupid Smith, so dumb.

WHOA SOMETHING OUTSIDE, Levi thrusts the window open and there's-

"EREN!!" Levi gets scooped up like a princess, oh why you big beast, have you come to save him? 

Despite not saying anything out loud, Levi bats his eyelashes… wait whys he is flirting with a titan.

Because he's treated you better then anyone else has DUH.

Levi has a full on dream breakdown at the realisation. Eren…growls? Reassuringly!?

*****

Levi groggly sits up from the crazy crack dream he had, what even in the fuck was that!? 

Eren's growling continues into the real world. The fuck is he doing? Whatever, it's probably just stray titans.

The grumpy man is forcefully yanked from his thoughts when his titan jankly tries to cover his nape and protect Levi, in the process he gets a good view of what's going on.

"OI SHITTY GLASSES DON'T FUCKING KILL MY TITAN."

"Whhhhhat LEVI!?!?!!!"

"PETRA GET THE FUCK OFF DON'T KILL HIM." Bloody people messing up his deep slumber. He was so comfortable.

Reluctantly the humans pull themselves away from the titan clutching humanity's strongest man.

"Hey fleabag, I know these annoyances. Calm down." Obviously Eren doesn't understand a word he's saying, he recognises his human is speaking in a calmer tone but he's far too spooked to actually focus on it.

Feeling and seeing the tenseness in his titan, Levi resorts to conversing with the idiots mad enough to get him before he even starts on Eren.

"Back up, put your swords away."

"But Captain-"

"That's an order." Utter shock and disbelief if dripping off their faces, Hanji can hardly keep it together, only managing to keep their mouth shut in curiosity of the titan before them.

"Bu-"

"You heard the man!!! Put those weapons down!" Hanji is far too excited to make themself vulnerable in front of a titan

Eventually and reluctantly the Levi squad sheath their swords, grumbling and shuffling away. Although they don't understand the situation, they all respect their Captain's choices.

Levi then focused on claiming the 15 metre baby.

"Eren." He twitched at the sound of his name, eyes flicking between Levi and danger.

"Hey Eren, it's okay." Shit Levi isn't good at this reasirance crap, but the titan seemed to have claimed down slightly since the crazy kids put their swords away. Levi thinks he's helping?

"Um, shhhhhhhh? Put me down Eren." When they went on that painstaking journey to the safehouse Levi had by some miracle taught Eren basic commands. He picked up 'forward' 'left' 'right' and 'stop' without any effort, Levi had just been saying those without thinking. What he did intentionally teach him though is 'down', it was very necessary for when they reached a river.

"Eren, down" A death glare was shot his way. Cheeky bitch, he only learned from the best.

"Oi." Eren seemed to be processing the situation. Humans travel in packs, and those packs appear to have a pack leader(s)? The yellow one is always in charge, but humans listen to his Levi. There are many humans, maybe the yellow alpha has mini leaders because he can't control them all. That would mean- his human is a mini leader!? More tension leaves his shoulders as he reminds himself humans aren't like titans, they're pack animals.

Levi watches with quiet interest as cogs turn in Eren's head, he has not a clue what goes on in that noggin, but he's being lowered to the ground. A large hand stays by its side for protection and support.

"AH Leeeviiiiiii! I MISSED YOU" A wild Hanji rushes towards the clearly injured man leaning against a titan for support.

"Fuck off abnormal."

"I-I I thought you were dead WHAA."

"I wish I was." Hanji pulls back and tips out tears that had pooled in their goggles.

"Captain are you alright?"

"Is your leg hurt?"

"What's the deal with the titan?"

"What happened?" Levi is surrounded by concerned idiots. 

"Get off and fuck off inside, we'll talk on the balcony."

"It's so nice to know you missed us too." Hanji leaned in again, this time to help Levi up the stairs, but apparently a certain someone wasn't used to sharing. Hanji is pushed over by one large jealous titan who snatches Levi from their clutches.

Levi's face hardens in embarrassment.

"Just go to the shitting balcony." 

The Levi squad badly conceal giggles as they enter the house, followed shortly by Hanji who's openly wheezing their life away.

Levi deeply scowles as he points up at the balcony, demanding to be put down once again.

Eren huffs dirty breath in his face before gently setting him down just in time for company to arrive.

"Levi I can't believe this, it's groundbreaking. Your titan can blah blah blah blah…" Levi let's his eyes unfocus and deliberately thinks about irrelevant things.

His completely irrelevant thought process is interrupted by a gentle poke to his shoulder. He turns to see Eren cocking his head and pointing at the new arrivals. His face is level with the balcony.

"AHHH is he pointing at me!!! So cute and interesting. Is he curious? Does he like to learn?? Do you think he wants to know about me!!!??"

"Shut your face-" then after a moment to seal the deal,

"-you'll confuse him." Eren pointed at himself and grunted out something vaguely only the lines of his own name just like a few days ago. He then points at the others again.

"You want to know their names?" Eren just looks at him, Levi guesses he can attempt a vocabulary lesson. There'll be no way to confirm if Eren understands or not though.

"Name. Levi is a name. Eren is a name." Eren's a freakly quick learner, he's been listening to English for years (through totally not creepily watching humans from afar) so it's just a case of putting words into context. Hopefully.

Levi gestures to his Squad and Hanji...who's drooling.

"You wanna know their names?" He cocks his head to the side for good measure. Eren surprisingly seems to understand what he's asking, even though he probably just picked up on the new word. But that's not the point. The point is he responded with a nod.

Levi reached out and petted the large nose to show his approval. He ignored Hanji's sequel in the background and the mutters of jealousy from his own team.

One by one Levi begins pointing and listing names.

"Eld, Petra, Oluo, Gunther…" he reaches the freak, was it easier to tell Eren their actual name or not?

"Shitty Glasses." Hanji can't even be sad, a titan wanted to know their name. That's unheard of!

Petra decides to step in for questioning before Hanji gets the chance.

"How did you meet...um"

"Eren." The titan himself pricked up at his name.

"AHH He recognises his own name!!!!! He's clever, can we keep him? Please please please pleeeeease." Both ignore them.

"He saved me when a horde of titans killed the squad I was with." He conveniently left out the part where Eren broke his gear and forcefully made him co-operate.

"How'd you make it here? We came out to look for you but we didn't expect you to be here."

"Trial and error. Lots of fucking trial and error."

"OH Levi tell me about-"

"I'll write a report to Erwin, I'm not repeating the same story twice." 

"Ahh yes, what're we doing about your titan Captain?" 

"WE OBVIOUSLY HAVE TO KEEP IT." Levi stares up at Eren. The walls are no place for a titan, if Eren's determined to follow him then sure, but Eren knows humans want to kill him.

"We'll let him decide."

"WHAT!?" 

"The chances of him dying and greater inside the walls, it's best to let him continue killing the ugly fucks out here."

"B-but-" 

"If you pissed him off how are you gonna controle him Four Eyes? He's not normal." Seeing things get heated between the two humans, Eren decided to intervene. He didn't like seeing his human upset, so he picked him up and pushed the other back into the house like a mother declaring bad time at her child's sleepover.

Eren protectively tucked Levi against his chest. Shielding him from the others view. Guess sleeping inside was never going to be an option anyway.

The people watch the scene unfold from the balcony, shockingingly none of them make any sort of comment, face or gesture. Levi's final decision still registering in their brains, the simple point he made opened unspoken problems about keeping a ridiculously intelligent titan confined within the walls.

How do they convince him to fight?

Where do they keep him? He'll need enough room otherwise he'll get cramps and fight to move and they can't forcefully confine him, because then he wouldn't listen to them.

What if he only listens to Levi?

There are many more problems, but one of the largest isn't even the titan's fault.

People aren't going to trust a titan.

The Levi squad collectively sigh and head to bed. Hanji trials after them, they were never one to give up but… this titan has a mind of its own. 

Sad times.


	4. Who Cried On The Teabags?

"Leeeeeevi Levi Levi Levi LEVI." He's going to comment murder.

"How are you down there? What's it like to live with a titan? Can I experiment on him? How did he save you?" If he weren't confined to his stupidly comfortable titan, he'd gut Hanji and throw their organs to the dogs.

"Hey Levi-"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP." An oversized finger pets his head.

"Awwwww Levi he's worried about you!! Are you suuuure we can't keep him?"

"I wish you never found me."

"So rude! You don't mean that."

"It was quiet."

"Levi-"

"Peaceful." A new voice cuts in thankfully.

"We're sorting out breakfast." Eyes burned with hatred glare at Hanji as everyone begins taking a seat at the balcony. Eren, ever the quick learner, recognizes the small tins Levi requires to survive, so he slightly unwillingly places the Captain to join the others. He's rewarded with a nose pat in thanks.

"Dawwwww I'm already gonna miss him, he's so intelligent." Levi scoffs at the blatant dig at him.

"Sooooo how did humanity's strongest meet that adorable creature?" Hanji asked again in hope of a more detailed answer. He hadn't even sat down yet.

"If you don't mind Captain, we'd like to know." He took his time opening a tin, it would be a shame to spill it after all. He relished the annoyed looks he received.

Never mess with a man's beauty sleep.

A soft familiar clink broke the intense glare that is actually just his resting face, the steaming tea sends a subtle peppermint aroma to his nose.

Now he'll talk.

"He killed the titans that got my squad and brought me to a cave." 

"That's it??!" Levi just sipped his tea and nodded.

"That can't be it?!!! Give me the deets Leviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii."

"You're gonna make my ears bleed abnormal."

"COME ON what else have you taught him? Tell me that at least pleeeeease." 

"Piss off." Hanji huffed and sulked like a child. 

Eld took this opportunity to be a decent human being and check up on Levi.

"Captain, do you have any injuries? Are you alright?" 

"I got a busted ankle, but I'm fine" Hanji was then sent into doctor mode.

"You're injured and you didn't tell us!?? Let me have a look at that." They reached to tug at Levi boots, targeting the one that wasn't harshly kicking at them with.

A deep growl stops everyone's movements.

"Oh my god. Levi does he recognise your hurt!!!! This is amazing, that must mean he knows humans don't regenerate like titans...do you think he's studied people!?" Hanji's screaming, drooling and ranting only intensifies as Eren angrily pushes them away from Levi. 

The Captain gives Hanji the finger at the petty victory.

"Fuck off." Eren squints as he starts to understand the meaning of the words Levi loves so much.

The man himself sighs at Eren's protective behaviour, he's stupidly allowed himself to get attached to a dopey titan. They really can't keep Eren in the walls unfortunately- it's nice having someone around who can physically remove Hanji from his sight. 

There's no use postponing it, the more time they spend here the higher the risk of titans.

"Oi Shitty Glasses, get the fuck up, we're leaving."

"Already!? But there's so much we can learn from-"

"You'll learn nothing about regular shitstains, he's different."

"All the more reason to-"

"Move. Pack. Now." A new set of vocal cords join the party.

"Captain we didn't bring an extra horse-" Gunther glances at Eren.

"Actually nevermind." Levi follows his gaze and stares at the beast, who cocks his head in return.

Levi reluctantly raises his arms to convey to his titan what has to happen. He points at himself and the remaining people clearing away breakfast, then in the direction of the wall.

Eren blinks and gestures to himself, to which Levi softly shakes his head and prepares for an overgrown temper tantrum. Surprisingly he receives a gentle head pat and an understanding look. 

Eren's intelligence is really on another level.

They set off an hour later, Levi of course taking the titan transport after violently kicking Hanji away several times.

They encounter their first titan about a third into the journey. It's a dumb titan they have no reason to engage, apart from the fact Eren doesn't know that.

As soon as turquoise eyes lock onto the giant pansy Levi is being shifted from a solid pec to a muscled neck, where Eren can completely wrap his hand around him.

With the Captain safe he adopts a running stance and barrels into the other titan, feeling a slight need to show off in front of the extra company, Eren sweeps the legs and stomps on the nape. He walks away like a cool guy who doesn't look back at explosions.

Eren flicks his hair out his face and checks on his small hooman. He's greeted with an extremely unimpressed look.

Levi massages his temples to rid himself of the abnormal scream steadily coming towards them.

*****

It took time, lots of ignoring people and pretending he's annoyed at being so high up, but finally they reached the wall. 

Levi feels Eren tighten his grip slightly. Soft whining fills Levi's ears.

He gently pets the baby's face and gestures he needs to be put down

"Eren down." Yeah he's not going anywhere.

Levi sighs and removes his cloak, fastening it around one chunky finger and repeating the command. This time he's slowly placed on the ground and with a final head pat, Eren turns and leaves quicker than expected. He must be the sort of person who rips plasters off.

The farewell was beautiful, apart from Hanji sobbing and snoting their away and a few tears that escape his own squad.

What the fuck!? 

Levi scanned the idiots for the one with the least facial liquids.

"Oluo get over here, help me walk to the hellhole." With support for his foot again, Levi doesn't turn to look at the distant titan.

The look on Erwin's face better be fucking worth it.

*****

A few days later and Eren is still sulking, he understands his human has to leave but…

He's lonely.

Nothing's the same. Life is meaningless. And there's nothing… 'nothing', well there is something he can do. He's aware of a smaller form hidden in his nape, but it's vulnerable which is why Eren never uses it. He'll look very human though.

:O

What if he learns how to use the zippy gear Levi has, then he can protect him in both forms.

:D

When he shifts to get up his joints are stiff and tense, but he only needs to get close to the wall. Where is the wall? Past the house where they met the hostile humans right? Yeah he'll start there.

Luckily he's been so busy crying himself to sleep he hardly passed the house, at least something good came out of his crippling sadness.

Wiping away tears, Eren sets off to the safe house.

*****

"Fucks sake Erwin, he killed the titans."

"And you met him once before but kept it quiet?"

"Whatever, that's what happened now get off my arse."

"We can't use this titan because….."

"We wouldn't be able to control him."

"And you're sure of this?"

"Piss off, yes."

"...Alright, leave me a written report within this week."

"You're a prick."

*****

HOLY FUCK OW.

Note to self, don't climb out of a 15 metre body and drop down. It hurts afucking lot.

Eren is however pleasantly surprised that his healing ability continues to his smaller form. He vaguely remembers from the last time he shifted (many many years ago) he's literally a titan but smaller, all the things he sees humans do he knows he doesn't need. Which is why he was so damn confused at humans in general until he came to the conclusion even in his smaller form he's not a human. 

Something he did however gain in his tiny form is an extra attachment, he doesn't have a clue as to what it's for but what he does know is it's uncomfortable having it out in the open.

Eren searches the safe house, there are so many smaller spaces inside the stone box. He's in shock at the amount of supplies placed inside the rooms.

The first box he opens has parts that look like Levi's gear, the second has tins, then water, tins, water, tanks, tins. Bloody hell humans sure do love their miniature cans, which aren't so miniature to him anymore.

He opens another box and IT'S FUCKING TINS AGAIN, Eren kicks the crate over and moves to a different room. His eye twitches and teeth grind in frustration.

He places Levi's cloak on a table as he searches the room.

Eren violently yanks open a cupboard, about damn time, there're clothes are hung up. He takes a few and compares them to his body, it's not the same that Levi wears but he should blend in at least. Sighing, he pulls them on and frowns at the slight discomfort he's greeted with, so he discards the shirt.

The shifter glances at the cloak resting on the table and fastens it to around his neck, he takes comfort in the fading scent woven into fabric.

He grabs a pair of boots on his way out, but curiosity of the stairs leading underground got the better of him. A familiar scent hits him as he walks into the room, that person clearly hasn't been here in years but it's unmistakably Levi. 

Books and tea line the shelves, one book is placed on a coffee table next to a chair, it has paper sticking out of it. On the paper the Captain stood in the middle of two people Eren doesn't recognise, he takes it anyway maybe Levi can tell him one day.

He makes a mental note to return here with Levi, that'll only happen if actually leaves, so after tugging on the boots he makes a beeline for the front door. 

It's going to be a very long pissing journey in this form. The things Eren does for that grumpy man.

*****

Levi is furious.

He decided after 3 days roughing it out with only a titan as company he could take a break and that doesn't sound like much, but when you consider he had nothing to do at all, those 72 hours are suddenly a lot longer. 

Like he said, he deserved a break, so he went straight to bed without checking anything. Oh boy was that a mistake. It's a fucking mess, how did he miss this the other day!? Obviously the furniture turned over is Hanji's fault, but the tear stains on his favourite teas, the attack in the kitchen by someone who clearly has a comfort food issue and the muddy footprints. He expected better of his own squad. At least Erwin has the decency to grieve cleanly. 

He limps over to Hanji's lab.

"Get the fuck up, gather my squad and meet me in the kitchen."

"The higher up's kitchen?" Levi could hardly contain the daggers he's glaring into Hanji.

"Want any help-"

"No, get my shitting squad and meet me there. Bring cleaning supplies." 

"Ooooh" Now they understand. Suddenly Levi's sprained ankle is a blessing from Wall Maria, no one shall be beaten today.

Hanji makes their way to the living room, many of the higher ups choose to live in the quarters that's why they have common living arrangements. It makes life simple and workaholics can simply crash in their office. Technically the Levi Squad shouldn't be there but they promised to not be a bother, so they allowed it...today that will probably change.

Hanji opens the door of the living room.

"Hey guys, Levi wants us in the kitchen."

"Why?"

"It's too dirty."

"Oh shit." 

When they make it to the kitchen (execution room), Levi is waiting tapping his foot. He takes note of Gunther's muddy boots.

"Which one of you cried on my tea." Low snickers are badly held in as Oluo's face burns red.

"Don't think the rest of you are off, who attacked the food?" Everyone silently points at Petra, all little too eager to rat each other out.

"I want the entire living quarters thoroughly cleaned by the end of the day." 

Isn't it great having Levi back!


	5. Already Off To A Fabulous Start

"Holy shit."

"Hum?"

"Fuckin' look, there's a person outside the wall."

"Don't be silly….the hell is that guy doing out there?"

"Oh crap he just fell over."

"You think he's dead?"

"I dealt with the last issue this one's on you."

"...Sure."

*****

Auuuuugh.

That. Was a **very** long pissing journey, his legs fucking burn.

He's lying on something unnaturally soft.

The hell!? Where is he? The last thing Eren remembers is collapsing outside the wall, he ended up walking through the night which is exceptionally hard when you live off a strict diet of sunlight. As soon as he saw his destination, his face was planted firmly in dirt. 

A human was nice enough to drag him through the dirt and dump him...somewhere??? Why Eren did nothing to stop this? It was the easiest way to get in the walls without causing a fuss, he definitely didn't hope even slightly Levi would be waiting for him.

"Excuse me are you alright?" Eren cracked an eye open at a young boy's pubescent voice, if he hadn't spoken he would have mistaken him for a girl. This blond guy was impressively feminine, he should dress in drag and sell products. Straight men love that shit.

He sits up on the weird springy fabric he was practically sinking into, humans sure do take their comfort seriously. Levi wiggled a lot when he was uncomfortable, Eren on the other hand just deals with it, he ain't no pussy.

"Um excuse me." Oh right. There's a pretty boy trying to socialise with him.

With newly formed lips Eren attempts the little English he knows.

"Name?" He points at the blond boy.

"My name? Oh I'm Armin." He then jerks his thumb in his own direction.

"Eren!" He beams at finally being able to say the name Levi picked for him, he definitely would have got a nose pat for it.

"Okay Eren, what were you doing outside the walls?" Eren cocks his head, fond memories of Levi first trying to talk to him flood his brain.

"Do you not understand me?" Eren blinks in response.

"But you must know some English if you know what name means." Ah a word he knows!

"Eren!" :)

"Yes I know that." In an attempt of better communication, Eren demonstrates the only language he knows.

"Forward, stop, left, right, down." Each word is confidently presented with an action. Armin gets a better understanding of the language barrier when Eren sends him a proud look at the simple vocabulary. Never one to displease, the blond gives a thumbs up and a smile.

Further spurred on, Eren continues.

"Gunther, Petra, Eld, Ohlu, Shitty Glasses, Levi!!!" 

"Are those names!?" Eren nods enthusiastically at what he assumes the question is.

"H-how what I- how do you know Levi? Is that why you have a Scout's cloak? It would make sense if you were found outside the walls." Armin begins rapidly as he reaches out to inspect the cloak, a deep growl stills his movement. 

Animalistic behaviour. Noted.

"Hey, it's okay I just want to check the name." Eren's growling lessens to a low rumble at the gentle voice, despite the progress he's still tense and ready to strike.

Armin carefully and slowly adjusts the fabric so he can read the name embroidered below the Wings of Freedom.

' _Levi_ '

Why does this guy have Captain Levi's cloak? Nothing makes sense. It's a plausible theory that Eren is a Scouts member who was left behind, but that doesn't explain why he has someone else's cloak and why he's not in uniform… and shirtless. When they found him he didn't even have ODM gear or a horse.

A threatening growl resurfaces and Armin removes his hand from the garment. Growling? He brushed it off before, but now he's not sure if humans can vocally growl. Very strange.

Three sharp knocks rattle the door.

"Come in." An unemotional mass slithers into the house, Armin waits patiently for Mikasa to sit down and assess the situation.

"Who's this?" Translation: _Who the fuck is this random bitch!?_

"This is Eren, he was found outside the walls, he... doesn't speak english."

"I see..." 

"...?"

"Why is he here?" _Why do we have to deal with it?_

"Hannes dropped him off for the time being, he's still on duty. This is probably the safest place for him to be right now."

"With muscles like those he'd definitely get roped into crime." Blush floods Armin's face, because that's what all straight boys do when male muscles are mentioned.

"Mikasa! You can't say that, you don't even know him!"

"You noticed?" His silence was an answer in itself and they both know it, it's not his fault Eren's golden body was blatantly on display.

A loud dramatic huff gets their attention, Eren has adopted an unamused expression at being left out, his lips are puckered sassily to complete the look.

Armin thinks for a moment then points at Mikasa.

"Name, Mikasa." Eren nods, slightly more interested but still bored. He stretches, unknowingly showing off his toned bod.

Armin is the first to address it.

"I'm going to get him a shirt."

As soon as Eren saw the blond coming at him with an item of clothing, he searched his brain for what Levi would do when he wanted rid of the other person.

Eren folded down all his fingers apart from the middle one.

"Fuck off."

*****

Two weeks later all three of them were heading off to training, Eren had non verbally demanded to join when he gestured to Hannes' ODM gear and forcefully pointed to himself before miming killing titans. They'd really have to help him with the obvious language difficulty, despite how quickly Eren seemed to pick up words. His learning rate was a little scary.

It was the first day and everyone was instructed to wait in their issued rooms, training officially started tomorrow to ensure everyone had a chance to arrive.

Armin holds Eren's arm and drags him to the boys' dorm, he had by some miracle 'convinced' Eren to put Levi's cloak in his bag and keep it hidden. They didn't want questions and Armin wanted to prevent permanent damage inflicted on any poor soul who would try to take it away from him. 

They're greeted almost as soon as they step in.

"Sup, I claimed the top bunk, left corner."

"Top right." How polite of them. Armin has the decency to introduce himself.

"Hello I'm Armin, this is Eren."

"I'm Conny Springer!" The skinhead exclaimed proudly.

"Jean Kristen." Eren stared at Jean, looking frustrated and deep in thought. 

Jean rudely disregards Eren and addresses Armin.

"What's the deal with him?" Armin is familiar with the brunette's current expression, with a communication problem, Armin and Mikasa have taken it upon themselves to learn Eren.

"Oh um well you see, Eren doesn't really speak English so he's likely having a hard time thinking of a word."

"Odd, why's he staring at me!? Ceep" Armin shrugs, he stopped questioning Eren a day after he met him.

The shifter is thinking hard, Armin taught him basic words he'd need to know, what was that one?

A moment of realisation crosses Eren's face as he turns to Armin and points at Jean.

"Horse." He then gestures to his face. A look of horror spreads across Armin's face at the blatant insult.

Conny fucking loses it, he's hunched over and wheezing his life away as soon as the word exited Eren's lips.

"HE'S RIGHT! BAHAHAHA!"

"OH SHUT YOUR FACE." Jean whinnies.

"The hell is everyone laughing about?" They all failed to notice two new arrivals through all the commotion.

"JEAN HAS HORSE FACE!" Conny kindly explained.

"Hey don't be so rude-" Then he saw it. He does his best to conceal the giggles.

In an attempt to change the subject before Jean plots to smother Eren in his sleep, Armin speaks to the new arrivals.

"Excuse me, I'm Armin and you are?" The guy lowers the giggles to a light chuckle.

"Reiner Brown." A quiet voice peaks out from the lamp post next to Reiner.

"Bertholdt Hoover." Eren seems confused at all the introductions, he turns to he who knows all.

"Armin, two name?" Ahh he hadn't attempted to explain the concept of last names, he does his best anyway.

"Yes two name, Armin Artlet. One name, Armin. Two name, Artlet." He lets the information sink in.

"One name Eren, two name…?" It hadn't occurred to Armin that Eren wouldn't have a second name, he thinks for a moment. He read an old book a few years ago that explained different languages, there's this one word that means hunter. Eren would have had to hunt to survive outside the walls and he wants to hunt titans, it's perfect.

"Jaeger, Eren Jaeger." And the simple puppy happiness is back, he smiles so wide Armin can see a few extra teeth at the back of his mouth… that's not normal. Before he has time to question it, Jean is offering Reiner and Bertholdt an explanation to the broken English out of the good in his heart.

"Apparently he's thick as mints and can't speak English."

"That's not a nice thing to say." How many new people are there!?

"Whatever Marco."

"You two know each other?" Conny pipes up.

"I met him on the carriage journey here." Reiner reels the conversation back to the truth bomb dropped about Eren while Connie mimes Jean and Marco kissing.

"He can't be too thick if he gets last names that quickly." 

"Y-yeah don't be so mean." Armin's only half hiding behind Eren to his own credit.

"Well maybe he shouldn't have called me a horse."

"He didn't mean to be rude, he doesn't understand that's an insult."

"My point exactly, he's thick as." Armin was about to lecture Jean on his manners, but he couldn't keep a straight face at the word choice considering the state of Eren's body under the clothes forced on him. He begins relocating their possessions to an unclaimed bunk in an attempt to mask his immaturity.

"Without being rude Armin, how did Eren get accepted in the first place with the…. difficulties and such?" Armin looks up at sweet Marco who deserves no harm in his life.

"Ahh well…" The truth is he had managed to convince the inspector and through the sculpted abs of one Mr Jaeger, both to promise a good soldier and. . .he's not proud at how he deliberately displayed Eren's body for a better chance of an acceptance letter. Armin is against mentioning that as he doesn't want others getting curious and demanding a strip show.

"I convinced the inspector Eren wasn't 'thick', he simply can't speak English well." Marco side eyes Jean at Armin's wording choice.

Polite conversation continues, but the more answers Armin gives only raises more questions. Ugh this is why he let the mystery of Eren Jaeger slide weeks ago.

***** 

All the boys were either mildly pissed, shocked or smug. 

It was the first day of training and anyone who witnessed Eren's communication issue was worried for the poor soul when physical training came about, not understanding Shadis' commands would surely earn some rough punishments. The only one who wasn't concerned was Jean, who was still very salty about being called a horse.

Time skip to this deathly course they're running and Eren is fucking owning it. He's making this course his bitch. The tosser even had time to run to the back where Armin is, present some flowers he found, delicately place them in his hair **while running** and make it back to the front.

Jean was pissed, Armin was nervously proud, Reiner was cheering the wanker on and everyone else was in dumb shock. 

"I told you he'd be fine." Marco overhears Mikasa monotone to Armin. 

"You know him?" Marco asks. The girl just nods in reply.

He looks over at Jean who's obviously been crushing on her the moment his eyes meet her cold emotionless ones.

All signs of life have left Jean's face, looks like he heard it to. Hearing the girl of his horniest dreams support his new sworn enemy is simply too much, Marco watches him wipe his hand on Conny's back.

"HEY what the hell did you just wipe on me!?"

"My faith in humanity." A boisterous laugh interrupts Marco's light chuckle, even Reiner can't resist a bit of eavesdropping.


	6. Bloody Hell, Learn To Shut The Fuck Up

Finally some good fucking food.

Eren lets out a pleased sigh as sunbeams sink into his skin, all of his skin. He's just in his boxers.

He hears heavy footsteps coming his way, auuugh who the fuck is here at breakfast time!?

"Oh….Eren, where are your clothes?" The naked boy has to uncomfortably shift his head so he can look his intruder in the eyes, it's not an easy task with the sun attempting to make you blind.

Reiner stares down at Eren who looks unbothered about having his body on display.

"Woah you didn't tell me you liked to work out! You should join me sometime, Bertholdt is practically one with the bed in the morning, it would be nice to have a partner." Naturally Eren understood nothing, luckily he had taught him the perfect word for this.

"...what?" Nailed it.

Reiner smiled and shakes his head already moving on.

"Anyway I woke up early and went to see where you ran off to, it's not a good idea to go anywhere without a translator." 

"What." Eren is annoyed this time, Reiner knows he doesn't understand anything he just said.

The blond just rolls his eyes.

"Breakfast?" Eren does his best to conceal his distaste towards the word. Humans require food to survive, he should suck it up to blend it but….it's soooo gross!! 

Reluctantly he sits up and shuffles on the trousers he brought with him, Mikasa would kill him if she found him walking around naked.

When the shifter sets off Reiner reaches out to stop him, but the temptation of seeing Jean's reaction to Eren's muscles got the better of him.

.

.

.

Naturally it was chaos.

For some stupid reason Jean still decided to take Eren on resulting in both of them being issued punishment laps, however for one of them this is the best possible outcome, no food and a morning run!? If Eren wasn't so ripped Jean would have kicked that stupid grin off his dumb face.

The fact that they have to do laps at all is an insult because today is their day off, everyone planning on going to town including the terrible trio.

As soon as Eren gets released he meets up with his friends, Mikasa smacks him to which she receives a menacing growl. 

Now it's Armin's turn to smack Eren.

"Don't do that, not everyone is used to your behaviour." The blond gestures to the people in town as Eren is dished out both a scolding and a burning glare from Mikasa, because he didn't growl at Armin too.

The best way out is simply to charge forward, which is surprisingly effective, Armin and Mikasa are too busy worrying about him trying to go off on his own to remember he's in trouble.

"Hey!." Oops he can already hear Armin apologizing for him...hey isn't that-

SHITTY GLASSES!?

Eren's face quickly tightens when he realises this, he's not supposed to know them, but if they're here then maybe Levi is also?

Turquoise eyes search the crowd of people but AGGGH EVEN IF HE IS HERE HE'S TOO SHORT, so he searches for a dip in the crowd which there are many, children do exist.

Armin's harsh elbow to his ribs brings him back to the situation at hand.

"Apologise." He's been taught this word but he doesn't like it, he's torn between following Levi's example again or just booking it.

"No no it's fine I was probably just lost in thought." Shitty Glasses is a saint, it was 100% Eren fault and they both know it.

"Oh I see-" Armin isn't convinced. Shit.

"What were you thinking about? Maybe I can help."

"Oh well it's just I have this friend-he's a prick- and I reeeeally want to test out this new drug-MEDICINE that I'm working on. He's been a real ass lately, well he's been sulking a lot in general since he had to leave his pet, I wanted to keep it but NOOOOO we couldn't because he said so. Anyway to get back at him...I mean soothe his sleep troubles, because he's having trouble sleeping without his pet. I want to slip a pill into his drink, he loves tea but I don't know if he'll be more suspicious if I deliberately buy his favourite flavour. I can't imagine what I've done to break the trust between us….if there was any there to begin with." Eren feels like his brain is going to melt.

Somehow Armin kept up with that word vomit.

"Buy one or two blends everyone likes then during a meeting make everyone tea."

"He doesn't trust me to make his tea, daaaang. I'll just force it down his throat. Ba bye!" The scientist madly cackles while walking away to the tea shop, Armin hopes they never encounter or wrong that person in any way.

Eren apparently has different plans, he pushes past people and narrowly avoids his friends' clutches when they notice he's off again. 

He reaches his destination and prods Hanji's shoulder. 

"Oh hello strange child." Before he can do anything, Armin is apologizing and fussing over him. 

"I am so sorry for interrupting you, he doesn't quite understand social cues and what people are saying he's….not from around here."

"Not from here what do you mean? You can't not be from here." There was a lie on the tip of Armin's tongue, but he knew of Hanji's work on titans and outside the wall, it's for the greater of mankind they know how Eren survived….totally for mankind not Armin's nagging curiosity. 

The blond shiftly looks from side to side, doing a very good impression of a shady drug dealer before whispering, 

"He used to live outside the walls." Hanji makes a sound similar to a boiling kettle. 

"That's incredible, come my office we have sooooo much to discuss!!" 

"....You believe me?" 

"Nope! But I want to humor you just in case and if you are lying I can have you done for spreading misinformation." Hanji smiles brightly at them…Armin has regrets. 

Eren digs his heels in when the titan enthusiast attempts to drag him away, he lets out a low warning growl which just eggs Hanji on.

Weirdo. 

The shifter lets out a frustrated huff at the oddball's behavior and pulls Hanji in the opposite direction. 

"I don't think so animal boy, we're going to my lab."

"I thought we were going to your office?" Armin pipes in. 

"I did say that didn't I? Oh well, the lab is our new destination!" Every exaggerated shriek pisses Eren off, he just wanted to show Hanji one thing darn it. 

Eren harshly yanks Hanji along with strength a trainee shouldn't have against a soldier, to convey the message they ARE following him if they like it or not, a monstrous glare backs up his point. 

Now, when I say 'monstrous' I mean it's something close to the incarnation of fear. Remember the first person this dude met was Levi then Mikasa was the third, throw in a gallon of frustration and rage and boom, you ain't gettin no sleep assuming yo ass lives thru that shit. 

Hanji however had stared titans in the face before, they're not going to back down at some unhinged human. This is why they 'let' themself be dragged along. 

"Sooooo what's the caveman's name?" Hanji's jolly attitude doesn't match the fact they're being forcefully dragged to an unknown location by a hostile stranger. Either they've been through some truly fucked up shit where their situation isn't threatening to them in the slightest, they're suicidal or they're an adrenaline junkie. Probably a mix of all three. 

"Eren." 

"Hum? Mini Erwin said you couldn't understand us, I smell porkiepies!!" Armin quickly cuts in in fear of being accused of a crime he didn't commit. 

"It's not like that, we've been teaching him words over the years, although he already understood the word 'name' when we first met him which I always thought was strange considering he shouldn't have had any contact with people, sure if he'd did meet someone they'd at least bring him to the walls."

"It might have been that a Scouts member was busy running away from battle, actually no that wouldn't explain why he understood words if we were too busy fighting to talk to him. Maybe there wasn't enough space? No you can fit two people on a horse if times get rough." Mikasa and Eren would rather be anywhere but here right now, Eren because he can't understand a damn thing and Mikasa because she can. Both let out a sigh of sweet relief when the dorms are in sight, it was pretty obvious to Mikasa where they were going; she knows every inch of Eren's pretty little brain. 

The rest of the walk is filled with theories and chatter, by the time they reach the corridor to the boys' room Eren has doubled his pace. 

Wasting no time Eren less than gently pushed open kicks the door open, he releases his prisoner and starts rummaging under his bed. His fingers grasp a well worn fabric and-

"FUCK." -hits his head on the bed frame.

Pain is only temporary, he doesn't even cradle his head while presenting a dusty cloak to Hanji, they let out a quiet 'oh shit' and look at Eren in utter disbelief. 

"H-how did you find this!? No actually how in fresh hell did you survive!?!?!!!!!?" Hanji's brain goes wild with theories. 

"Hang on did you…befriend a titan outside the walls?"

"Titans are merciless bloodthirsty tyrants, they don't befriend." Mikasa glares holes into the wall, an unwelcome memory still fresh in her mind from years ago. 

"Except we did meet one, he protected us! His intelligence was on another level. I hadn't seen anything like it before, we were able to teach him commands. An outstanding creature." 

Armin can hardly process the information before Hanji is talking again. 

"The titan ended up leaving with Levi's cloak-" They fail to notice Eren perking up at a certain someone's name,

"-I shouldn't tell you this so unfortunately I can't provide all the juicy details but this now means you're entitled to tell me everything Eren knows about titans!" 

"Ah w-well-" Armin is honestly terrified of Hanji, he wouldn't dream of pissing off any scouts member, especially not the unhinged scientist.

*****

"LLLLLLEEEEEEVVVVVIIIIIIIIII!!!!" Levi volts over his desk and swiftly closes the door in time for a body to heavily crash against it. 

"Whipe your fucking boots before you come in." He hears vigorous shuffles before he opens the door, he's greeted with a shit eating grin. 

"Sooooooo Leeeevi remember our titan friend? Welllll-" 

"Get to the fucking point."

"Rude. I met a strapping lad today who showed me this." They present the old cloak, Levi keeps a two metre distance in fear of catching a disease. 

"Heavens, has that thing ever been washed, gah put it away." Hanji takes no notice of the command. 

"This ratty thing just so happens to be your very own cloak, the one you gave away to your pet." 

"How?" 

"I'm glad you asked! So I was in town searching for tea when this guy ran into me, I ended up talking to his friend about…plans, but he couldn't help me so I went back to looking for tea." 

Levi sighs in annoyance

"And then the guy I run into comes up to me but before he can say anything his friend-who is 100% Erwin's secret love child-explains to me that Eren is from outside the walls!" 

"Eren?"

"Ya the guy's called Eren." 

"So this guy is apparently from outside the walls and he just so happens to be called Eren."

"That brings me onto my next point, I didn't believe him at first but then he showed me your old cloak and there are things about him that make sense if he lived outside, he behaves like an animal, it's clear his friends have tried to teach him to behave more human. Eren struggles to talk and understand language." 

The poor man endures 3 hours of rants about how Eren must have been protected by his Eren at a young age and how he probably calls himself Eren because that's what titan Eren is called??? 

Levi is so done. 


	7. YUCK! What Are You, Five!?

Good grief finally. 

Eren and the gang are finally Scouts and Eren can actually talk! Like fluently, he wants to be prepared when he meets Levi. 

At the current moment they're all seated in the dining hall, Eren is shaking his head with his lips sealed shut while Armin attempts to forcefully spoon feed him. 

"Eren you have to eat something." Only a fool would respond, Eren knows this game. 

"Awww does wittle baby not want him num nums?" 

"Shut the fuck up horse face." In that split second Armin shoves the spoon in his mouth. 

Eren's face scrunches up in disgust, he dodges Mother Artlet and spits his saliva covered oats in Jean's face. 

"THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" 

"Oops I'm sorry, I thought you were the bin."

"I don't look anything like the fucking bin."

"But you're both full of rubbish." Jean flicks soggy oats onto Eren's face, who isn't bothered. Damn. Jean crams now mushy oats into Eren's mouth and clamps his hand over his lips. 

"MUUUUNNMN MMTHK MS MPOMG MWTH MUU!?!??" Baby kicks and thrashes, eventually he boots Jean in the stomach then punches him for good luck. Madly dashing to the actual bin, Eren spits and forces himself to vomit, only a small amount of food and stomach acid comes up. 

Suddenly his ankles are grabbed and sharply yanked causing him to collide with the floor, he rolls over to hook his legs around Jean's neck, who's still on the ground to reach the shifter's ankles. 

The taller's face burns red as oxygen is cut off from his lungs. 

The dining room door slams open. 

"SHUT UP, YOU'RE SCARING MY TEST RATS." Rage filled eyes lock onto the culprits. 

"Oh my god Erreeeen! It's been so long, can you talk now?? Can you!?" The leg lock is released when Hanji started screaming at him. 

"Ughh." 

"Are you busy? Well you mustn't be if you're spending your time like this, I assume you finished your food already? Good! Let's go!!" They gave no room for a response, Eren uses this opportunity to abscond from the hell ho-dineing room. 

Hanji's full attention is on Eren as they walk to their lab, feet moving on autopilot. 

"You can understand me right? Answer me, say anything!" 

"You're way too happy about this." Hanji's face splits into a grin, their teeth chatter in excitement. 

"AHH That's so much better than I was expecting, how long have you been learning language?" 

"5 years." 

"Ooo and how long were you outside the walls?" 

"I-um I don't know." Hanji pushes the door to their lab open. 

"Shame, but understandable. OH here." They pass him a rag. 

Eren blinks, oh right he still has oats on his face. 

"You're lucky I like you. Food fights are a huge waste of resources." 

"I wasn't… nevermind." He cleans himself up while Hanji rushes around, grabbing paper, pen and random objects. 

"Okay we'll start with the big one." They present Levi's old cloak, it's much cleaner than the last time Eren saw it. 

"How did you get this, why did you give it to me?" Eren's not ready for this, there is no way he's saying he found it on the floor, he's never let anything like that happen to the cloak he was trusted with. 

"Well… Um-" A sharp knock sounds at the door followed by an angry Captain slipping inside. Oh thank fuck, Eren needs all the think time he needs…hold up he knows that scent. 

"Oi Shitty Glasses, apparently you dragged the brat causing the racket, in here." Levi's eyes peirce through his soul, bloody hell he's fucking terrifying close up. He wanted to see him again, but shit not like this. 

"Don't be so grumpy, it's just a bit of noise." Eren doesn't mention Hanji looked ready to set the place on fire at the noise level.

"Also don't damage my evidence."

"Don't tell me, I don't want to know."

"Well since you asked-" Levi ignores them in favour of glaring at Eren. 

"You, go the fuck back to the hall." 

"NOOO LEVI NO, NOT MY WITNESS. EREN STAY." Obviously Eren has a favorite and he doesn't want to tell anyone about his titaness quite just yet, so-

Hanji grabs his arm, this makes leaving more difficult. Fuuuuuuuuuuck he's not ready to spill the beans. 

"This is Eren." HANJI NO. 

Levi narrows his eyes. 

"Eren?" 

"Mini Eren, he gave me your cloak!" Levi is about to just leave the poor boy to Hanji's clutches, that's more of a punishment for causing a fuss in the dining hall then he could ever give. However he catches movement out the corner of his eye, Eren's inching towards the exit with a look of pure regret and desperation, their eyes meet as his fingers brush the door handle. 

Eren's brain is spewing suggestions like nobody's business, should he book it? Shit Levi is right there…maybe he should just tell the truth? Hell no, absolutely not. He needs to get all his high pitched squeals and fanboyness out the way before he even spills a drop of bean juice, like COME ON he can actually see the details of the first human he met. Oh yeah and if he tells Hanji they'll do all kinds of freaky experiments on him, so that ain't happenin'. 

"You gonna stand there all day brat?" Screw it.

He frantically shuts the door after his exit then sprints like a mad dog down the corridor, his excuse is the Captain told him to go to the hall. Except he's not going where food is forced on him, he's going outside so he can hide in a tree. 

A metal door is thrown open in the distance. 

"Levi you scared him, ERRRRREEEEEN." He closes the outside door and cuts off the scientist's cries. 

*****

Eren wakes up at his useual time, early as fuck. He slips on a pair of loose trousers and trudges as lightly as one can trudge outside. The sun just came up and Eren flops like a dead weight to the ground. 

Hours pass before sluggish Scouts drag themselves to the dining hall, once again the doors are slammed open by Hanji. 

"Is Eren in here?" Multiple people murmur 'no' apart from Jean who slurs,

"The bastard never eats." This purkes Hanji's interest. 

"Oh, never you say? Why was he here yesterday?" 

"His mums dragged him in." He gestures to a disgruntled raven and blond. 

"We try to get him to eat but he just throws it back up." Both mothers disapprovingly sigh. 

Hanji goes silent, dangerous cogs turn in their head. 

"Okay! Where can I find him?" 

"Um well actually-" 

"We can never find him." 

A new voice joins the conversation. 

"Seriously? He sunbathes outside everyday." Heads turn to stare at Reiner. Hanji cuts in before Mikasa can demand how anyone can know anything about Eren that she doesn't already know. 

"Everyday!?" 

"Yeah." That was all Hanji needs, they dash outside with a newfound urgency. 

It doesn't take long to find him, a quiet place without people that has a good amount of sun? That's right up Levi's street, infact Hanji knows of basically all the good spots just from locating the little man when he's trying to avoid people. 

Eren turns his head to stare at the intruder. 

"Okay Eren, I'm not here to ask questions…yet, I would like to give you a health check up! According to your parents and colleagues, you don't eat mister. I can't have my evidence without a clear mind because he could be suffering from a condition. To the lab!"

(Batman transition music) 

Eren's eyes dart about, serching for boobytraps as he's told to sit on a AHhHHhHHHHHhHhhHh COLD TABLE. 

"Removeith your torso garment." Okay maybe Hanji isn't so bad, after all these years, Eren Jaeger still hates shirts. 

Hanji's face is painted with shock at the **very healthy** body they're presented with. 

"Say Eren, what do you eat?" 

"What do I eat?" 

"Yeah you've gotta eat something or you wouldn't be alive, or this chiseled." 

"Umm human food?" 

. . . 

"Duh what kind of _human food_?" Eren has spent his recent years avoiding the stuff like the plague, he doesn't know what the norm is. Rations? 

"Bread."

"Just bread."

"Yup."

"What about the food we serve the Scouts?" 

"Yep that too."

"AHHHH AHAHAHAH I think one Mr Jaeger is lying~ Not to worry my sweet sweet evidence, I **will** get answers :)" 

He eyes the door. 

"Not so fast, open up!" Fingers are being stuck in his mouth, ew what the hell!? He desperately tries to spit them out. 

"Good good, nothing immediately wrong." Hanji isn't a dentist, so their approach is to prod everything and see if it hurts.

With a sharp gasp, the menace retracts their fingers to pry his mouth open wider after they run their fingers over his back teeth. 

"Extraordinary." Hanji dismisses Eren to his duties while they sketch the positioning of his teeth. 

*****

It turns out Hanji's idea of finding out Eren's eating pattern is to hire a babysitter. Said babysitter took a lot of convincing, bribing and some prodding, because even though he won't admit it, Levi is interested in the mysteries that surround his pet. 

First thing's first, Hanji waited for Eren to arrive at his sunbathing spot thirty minutes before he arrived, Reiner, the traitor, told Hanji all the details. Then they both wait for Levi to get up. 

Hanji has dragged Eren to the higher ups dining room, so far he has turned down every offer concerning food. 

The Levi squad trickle in one at a time, Hanji explains the situation. 

"I fully expect him to push Eren onto you guys for most of the time." The squad all glance at each other, silently communicating how to evenly split babysitting time. 

Petra is the first to comment on Eren's current state. 

"Eren was it? Did you get any sleep last night? You look horrible." Technically titans don't sleep, they mostly shut down in the night while they wait for the sun to come back up, it's a defence thing. With this in mind Eren rested just fine, but Hanji hasn't let him see sunlight at all this morning, he can hardly keep his head up. 

"I'm fine, Hanji got me up early." A chorus of pity filled sighs and grunts fill the room. 

An annoyed tut brings everyone's attention to Levi, who's awake and prestein even at this hour. 

"You expect me to look after this pathetic sack of shit, he can't even stand up." Oh OH, Eren will not sit by and have his human think he's weak. He walked all the way to the walls in the night, what's one day doing his duties? 

Eren forces his eyes open and straightens his posture, the only trace that he's exhausted is the dark bags and the bloodshot eyes. 

Levi raises an eyebrow at the desplay that conveys 'fuck you, I'm gonna make you eat your words' but doesn't comment. 

"I overheard you think I'm passing this ratbag to my team, but I'm holding onto him all day." A famous glare is shot his way, looks like Levi took that personally, Eren is not losing. 

"Alright brat follow me." Levi sharply turns with Eren hot on his heels. 

It is brutal. 

Levi has him dust, scrub then polish every surface, when Eren finishes all the work with determination strong in his eyes, he's pushed to the stables. Lucky for Eren there's a lot of back and forth when clearing out the stables with no help The actual horses are in the shade, but the trips Eren's doing is in the juicy succulent sun. His body may be screaming in pain and agony, but he's slowly getting fed energy. S l o w l y. 

When lunch rolls around Eren turns down food again, he's fully prepared to let his body rest for twenty minutes when-

"Well if you've not eating then go make yourself useful and help wash dishes." 

"Okay. I. Will."

He was forced to finish the dishes before he could go back to his assigned work. 

When he finished his physical torcher, Hanji demanded answers at dinner. 

"Anything!?" 

"No, there's something wrong with him, I swear he's not human." Eren is sitting right there. 

"Not human huh?" They pull out sketches of Eren irregular back teeth. Levi leans forward and squints

"The fuck? Jaeger open up." Eren complies, they already know about his titan teeth and Hanji will probably clamp his jaw open if he refuses. 

"Seriously what the fuck is wrong with you!?" 

When Eren went to bed Hanji watched him the entire night. It was really creepy. 


	8. Devil Children

It's the afternoon, the sun is gently toasting sweaty Scouts and the soothing clip clop of horses fills the air. 

Our angry titan boi is steadily riding alongside his comrades, only the higher up know the purpose of this mission for some bullshit reason. But what's new? 

Eren bordely watches as two birds dance in the sk-HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE MOTHERFUCKING TITANS.

Eren flips the fuck out, he's in his valuable smaller body while a horde of dirty fleebags jankyly charge his way, he screambles to fire a flare while aggressively screaming at the offenders to warn the others nearby. 

"STAMPEDE OF HOES COMING THIS WAY." Even in the eyes of death Armin sighs disapprovingly at the language Eren was taught. 

"The forest is up ahead, we can make it." Thank goodness he has Armin to point out what should be obvious in this situation, because Eren is already reaching for his swords. 

Rapid footsteps close in on them.

They won't make it. 

They won't make it. 

Rookies are already dying from trying to fight off the horde. 

He can't watch this. 

Eren turns and rushes towards the other Scouts, Armin will be fine, he's not crazy enough to get himself killed-

OW HIS FUCKING LEG. The bastard came out of nowhere, gah shit, some of the blood flicked on his face. His senses are overwhelmed and scrambled in his adrenaline frenzy, his larger form would be able to take it. He doesn't want to admit it, but he's pretty shit at using the gear. 

Pushing those kinds of thoughts from his head with a frustrated hiss, Eren concentrates on stopping his leg from regenerating while he scans the area. Hopefully no one saw _that_ and he can just pretend this never happened, no worries only every titan around can see him lying helplessly on the ground. 

Petrified blue eyes are locked onto Eren's bloody leg stump. Every titan and Armin can see him. Shit. 

There's a titan behind the blond reaching out to him. For fucks sake Armin he leaves you for 2 seconds. 

"NO ARMIN." Eren laches his ODM gear onto the titan's face, he lands with a heavy thump and rips Armin from it's grasp, he yeets the boy away from him as his arm is bitten off and he's swallowed whole. 

It fucking stinks in there. 

Severed limbs and corpses float around him, Eren endures it while he waits for Armin to get further away from him. He really hopes people are too busy fighting to realise his limbs are disintegrating on the floor, that's not gonna be easy to explain… will he have to explain? Unless he admits to being a titan, he's presumed dead, he'll probably have to live outside the walls again. 

Fuck that, he endured 5 years in that pissing training course just to see his human, he's not leaving untill he tells Levi, he'll get there as a fucking titan if he has to. 

Fuck this. 

Lightning cracks, deep bellowing roar rips through Eren's throat as he bursts out his flesh prison. 

He charges towards the nearest titan and rips its neck out, screaming and puffing out his chest victoriously. Titans pause and clumsy stumble towards the muscled challenger. 

Eren slowly backs up while beating the shit out of the ugly fuckers, leading them to the forest. 

When he's close enough, Eren grabs a 10 metre by the face and slams it into a beefy tree trunk repeatedly, he tightens his grip and smashes it with a titan coming up behind him. An unholy screech directs his attention to his left, bones crunch as he punches the hideous mass. One of the earlier titans weakly crawls to grip his legs, he stomps on his nape, blood coats his foot and stream fills the battlefield. 

He leads them deeper into the woods, leaving a breadcrumb trail of titans. 

Deep crimson coats his skin, flesh is wedged in between his teeth and organ tissue is trapped under his nails, he snarls at the few titans left. 

In his peripheral vision a hooded figure cleanly slices the remaining titans, the small human perches on a branch next to Eren's head. 

A familiar scent fills the air…holy shit. YAAAAAS FUCKIN' **YAAAAAAAAAAAS!!!**

"Eren." Levi lets out a small sigh of relief as the titan's defence softens and he joyfully rumbles, he watches as Eren glances at the empty scenery then sinks to the floor. 

"Tired huh?" He nods, stretching his arm up to the small human. 

Strange. Levi doesn't remember teaching Eren the word 'tired'. 

"Piss off." A large hand flips off the Captain before attempting to grab him anyway. 

Levi effortless dodges, landing on a lower branch. A growl surfaces while Eren sits upright to get a better angle, he tries again. 

"No fucking chance, neither my foot or gear are damaged this time, you grabby shit." Eren snorts in amusement, but doesn't stop his 'attack'. 

"I can and will cut your fingers off." This makes the shifter pause for a moment, he turns his head to face Levi and breathes hot corpse breath over his entire body. The rotten stench makes the clean freak gag and cover his mouth, a gentle hand plucks Levi from the cloud of death and disables his gear. 

Eren looks very proud of himself. 

A heated glare is shot at the smug bitch while Levi wiggles his arms free of the hand holding him hostage. 

"Breath your scummy breath on me one more time and I'll let the Scouts kill you." He just pats the raven's head and purrs victoriously. 

Levi attempts to bat the finger away unsuccessfully. 

"Oi moron, if anyone finds your grubby fingers on me they'll kill you without hesitation." Levi isn't expecting a response, but Eren stops his petting assault and gruffly hums. 

He cups the Captain's body in his other hand and presses him to his chest, only a small head is visible. 

Levi can't believe was ever worried about this piece of shit. 

"Oi, how the fuck can you understand me." Very subtle. 

Eren's none existant poker face gives him away immediately, but he attempts to play dumb anyway by cocking his head in 'confusion'. 

"Oi, don't give me bullshit I'm not a fucking idiot, you can obiously understand me now. You respond despite me not teaching you anything I said." Eren guesses he should- 

"LEEEEVIII." OH COME ON. 

"Try having to work with the abnormal." Eren grunts in agreement. 

"Di-DID HE UNDERSTAND YOU!?!? AHHHHHH EREN YOU'RE SO SMART!!!" 

You know what? Fuck it. Hanji will find out eventually. 

He places the small human on Hanji's branch and pulls himself up so his nape is level with them. 

"The fuck are you doing?" The shifter growls at his Captain's impatience. 

Steam jets out from his neck as he rips himself free, his titan shell falls to the floor once he climbs on the branch. 

"Hey Levi." 

"... Eren?" 

"EREN!?!" Eren nervously grins.

Hanji and Levi stare at Eren. 

"This explains a lot."

He almost falls off the branch when Hanji throws themself at him, they start sticking their fingers in his mouth again. 

"This is why your teeth are odd, how many features do you retain from your titan form!? Is this why you don't eat? Do you live off sunlight? That must be why you sunbathe everyday, and why you were so sluggish when Levi babysat you. Can you communicate with titans? What does it feel like? Does it burn you?"

"Well-"

"Can you even digest food? Your friends told me you throw it up."

"I just don't like it."

"OH you had Levi's cloak because you're titan Eren and not huuuum." Hanji's brain has only just fully restored that Eren is that titan, they mentally begin crossing out many theories surrounding there being two Erens. 

"Yep, I want that back by the way." 

Levi levels him with a pained expression, remembering the state the poor thing was left in. 

"The hell did you give it to Shitty Glasses in the first place then."

"I wanted you to know I was coming to meet you." Eren just smiles. 

"That's idiotic Jaeger, no one in their right mind would assume the titan they met is just poping down for a visit in a human body."

"Technically I'm not huma-" 

"Don't be fucking phadantic with me brat, I'll rip your eyes from your skull and shove them up your ass." This snaps Hanji out of their trance. 

"How good is your regeneration in this form?" 

"It's the same speed, hurts more though. From what I've gathered, I still don't feel as much pain as humans." 

"OH OH WHAT ABOUT-" 

"Shut up Shitty Glasses, wait until we get back." Levi sighs tiredly before turning to Eren. 

"Don't break any more of my fucking ODM gear."

"Ahh yeah, sorry about that." He's not sorry. 

"You can ride on my back." Now the cat's out of the bag, Eren reveals he's actually a cheeky bitch. 

"Piss off." 

A flare pops in the distance signaling the end of the mission, Eren crouches down and wiggles his fingers behind his back. Levi makes sure to stand on the offending digits while he climbs on Eren's back. 

"If either of you say anything, I'll throw your guts to the pigs." Hanji badly concealed giggles as they grapple away. 

They're midway through their route when Eren finally realises something. 

"Shit." 

"Watch your fucking language Jaeger."

"Oh _rats_ , Armin saw me get eaten by that blimin' titan. We can't let him see me." Eren couldn't see the sinister grin that creeped onto Levi's face. 

"Were you injured?" 

"Yeah my leg and arm were bitten off." Hanji catches Levi's eye, they stare each other down before sharing a silent nod. 

"I have the most perfect plan."

*****

Eren did not think the plan would involve Levi holding him down and gagging him while Hanji manically recreates his wounds. 

The phyco hops around while clutching his disintegrating limb, Eren tensely bites down on the gag, determined not to scream anymore then he already has. 

Levi shifts to free Eren's leg. 

"Never-" Hanji's sword rests on his leg. 

"-think you can get away with humiliating me." Levi signals Hanji and Eren's muffled screams reawaken when his leg is hacked off, he's lucky the swords are so impossibly sharp. 

He's released but the gag isn't removed. 

"You said you were fighting right? Then you'd definitely have some cuts and bruises." He's kicked back to the ground and given a thorough beating that's only purpose is allowing Levi to let loose some steam. 

Eventually he rips the gag from his mouth. 

"Okay okay I get it, I'm the only sane one here." Hanji's in his face straight away. 

"How much did that hurt? You said you don't feel pain the same way we do!" 

"Yes losing two limbs fucking hurt."

"And the beating!?" 

"Tolerable." The only reason Eren agreed to this plan was because it was better then hoping no one recognised him with his hood up. 

"Alright faze two." 

Faze two involved Levi stealing his working gear and throwing him in a body bag. 

Yes, the plan is to dump him with the corpses. 

He's never wronging those devil children ever again. 


	9. It’s All About COMMITMENT

It was a bumpy journey home. 

After Eren had stated he wasn't ready for his friends to find out about his big bad securet, Levi and Hanji fucked him up and threw him with the corpses. 

The Scouts always bring home as many dead soldiers as possible, so it was no problem disguising Eren, but you can imagine a long ride on the back of a cart with major injuries isn't fun. Especially if you have to play dead. 

Oh you're uncomfortable? Well tough shit, you either suffer silently or move and get found out, then you have to explain what the hell you're doing there in the first place. 

No thank you.

He was starting to wish he just risked it with the hood plan. Or told Armin, he's planning to anyway so why…? 

He done fucked up.

Well he's gone this far he might as well commit. 

The cart stops. Eren feels the bag open slightly as someone peeks in, then his feet are being grabbed, followed by his upper torso. He's transported through familier twists and turns before being unceremoniously deposed on a cold table. 

Deeming the location safe, he wiggles and crawls out the bag. All the blood from his severed limbs coat his body, Eren's abnormally high body temperature has heated the inside of the bag, creating a bloody sweaty mess. It looks like he’s emerging from a womb. The image is there, I'm almost sorry. 

HE IS REBORN! 

With a groan he begins regenerating his injuries. 

"WAIT WAIT, NOT YET." 

Hanji comes crashing towards him. 

Eren sighs and continues his much earned healing.

“It’s nothing you haven’t seen before.” With a much more dramatic sigh, he swings his legs over the edge of the table and runs his fingers through his hair. 

He feels bad, Armin has been there for him for a long time. He essentially raised Eren, and what did he do in return? Let him believe his friend to be dead, but if he told Armin then he wouldn’t be spending time with Levi...even if Hanji is always there trying to dissect him or some creepy shit. 

How would Armin even react? Now that he thinks about it maybe running straight to Levi was a good choice, he knew for a fact his Captain and Hanji wouldn’t be bothered by his non humanness, they’ve already met his titan self. He can’t expect his friends to react the same way. 

“I can practically hear your depressing monologue, spill.” Awwww Levi does care! Even if it’s in his own grumpy way.

“I feel like letting my friends think I’m dead was a dick move.”

“Yeah, I’d be fucking pissed if I found out someone did that to me.”

“...”

Now it’s Levi’s turn to dramatically sigh.

“Look Jaeger-’

“Eren.”

“Fuck you. Look you little piece of shit, you can sit there and be pathetic with all that self pity, but even then don’t. It’s painful to watch, and I let Shitty Glasses cut your fucking limbs off with glee.”

“There’s actually something wrong with you two.”

“Shut the fuck up Jaeger, apprciate I’m dealing with your pitiful state and not booting you outside. Shit, whatever you’ve ruined the mood. Just bear in your stupid titan brain that if you told your overprotective mothers, bad shit could have gone down.”

“\:?”

“Don’t put your trust in people brat, we’re all shitty creatures that will stand by and let your only friends fucking die.” Eren isn’t sure this is about him anymore.

“So what you’re saying is?”

“If you didn’t give us the chance to introduce you as an ally to humankind, then one of your teammates could have overheard you spewing your secrets and smothered you in your sleep.”

“Hold up. You’re gonna introduce me to who!?”

“Oh yeah, don’t think this is slipping by Erwin, that dirty fox knows everything. He was lowkey pissed when I let you go twice.”

“TWICE!?!?!” Hanji has entered the conversation, only to be ignored.

“Erwin won’t let you die.”

“And you?”

“If I fucking have to I won't.”

“Awwww Levi I’ll protect you too! That’s why I came here. :3” 

“Piss. Off.” Eren jumps off the table and reaches out towards the Captains head, his hand is caught in a strong grip.

“Just because you’re not sulking, doesn’t mean you can touch me.” It’s too late, the fire has been lit, the newly reformed second hand in coming in hot. (Pun intended)

Hanji boos in the background when Levi catches the other offending wrist.

“I am prepared to fight you Levi.” There’s death in the Captain’s eyes, clearly they’re both dumb and willing to fight over something as stupid as this. 

“WAIT STOP.” Both pause, but don’t let their guards down. Hanji sounds serious.

“If you’re gonna fight let me get ready first. I wanna see if Eren’s raw titan strength is enough to take down a skilled opponent in close combat!” Oh, so nothing important.

The interruption is absolutely fine though, because BOOM SNEAK ATTACK!

Eren twists his hands to grip Levi’s and yanks him into a hug, while he’s here he might as well touch the hair.

*****

Levi was right, he shaped up and told the big man himself. 

He knows informing Erwin was the right move, but BOI GIVE HIM SOME REST.

Yeah so remember that time when Eren silently challenged Levi and then the Captain put him through some seriously brutal cleaning? Well forget about that, because this time they know Eren’s a titan, therefore he can handle more shit and Erwin wants to know E V E R Y T H I N G about his capabilities.

If Levi and Hanji are devil children, then Erwin is Satan.

The next few days were filled with gorey disection, Kaneki & Jason stye torture methods and nah I’m just kidding, sure the week was worse then Levi’s spite cleaning, but they really don’t need to know what his insides look like. Pluss a certain someone doesn’t like it when Eren gets whooped for no good reason. Only Levi’s allowed to beat up that titan booty.

Over the course of the experiments, Levi was present. He wanted to make sure the phycos didn’t go too far and he wanted to spend some more time with that titan he met oh so long ago. Yeah he can be nice. Sue him. 

Eventually they told the Levi squad about Eren being titan Eren, Erwin wanted to ease the shock a little bit before he dropped the truth bomb of the existence of titan shifters to everyone. 

And very importantly, as soon as Hanji and the Levi squad saw Eren as more human than titan, you can bet referring to Eren as a pet died out pretty quickly. 

It’s not that kind of fic. (I fear for the day I find a crack smut fic...that is if I don’t slingshot myself straight to Hell and make one. “HEY, wanna get consensually intimate with MA DONG!?” No...lord no.)

Back to the current date and time. Eren is once again contemplating his decisions and future actions, but this time he’s in Levi’s office for no reason other than because he can. He is the privileged one.

Levi huffs through his nose without looking at the brooding noucence, his pen is placed on his desk with calm irritation.

“Just fucking tell them.”

Eren groans in disagreement.

“Weren’t you telling me not to tell them a few days ago?”

“Yeah, back then you didn’t have any backup and you still slept with them. Now you sleep in that filthy cell...for your own protection.”

“I am so grateful I sleep like a prisoner.”

“For fucks sake, if you don’t in the next ten minutes, then I’ll tell them the whole story from day one. Mostly about what a whiny clingy bitch you were.”

“Hey!”

“Oh sorry, what a whiny clingy bitch you  _ are.” _

“You know what? Fuck it. They’ll find out anyway.”

“About damn time.”

“Alright then, let’s go.”

“I have work.”

“It can wait.”

“I’m not being your emotional support.”

“I need you there as proof, what if they don’t believe me?!”

“Not my problem.”

Eren slowly backs out of the door while pointing at Levi.

“Just for the record, I haven’t lost. I’ll be back.”

“Uh huh, piss off and close the door on your way out.”

Frustrated at not getting the last word in, he shuts the extra slowly, so the old wood squeaks and cracks for an elongated period of time.

He pulls his Scouts cloak over his head as he walks, he may look a tad sus, but he’s not risking someone recognising him then screaming bloody murder at what they think is a ghost.

He got a few strange looks on his way to the dorms, but no one really commented. They should probably work on their security.

Eren lets out a deep breath and pushes the door open.

As expected all the rookies have been shoved into the same dorm, even Mikasa is here despite the fact this is the boys’ dorm. Rules and Mikasa never really went together, some days Eren actually believes she would muder someone if he told her to, no questions asked.

Familiar faces turn to look at the intruder, a few of his old training buddies appear to be missing, it’s not a particularly nice day out and the beds no longer have any belonging beside them. Eren walks over to his old bed, unlike the others, his possessions are untouched...mostly. He doesn’t have any family to collect his stuff, but one look at Armin’s bed tells him where the missing items went.

The blond is crying into Mikasa’s shoulder while hugging his clothes...shit he feels horrible, looks like the beating he’ll receive won’t be physical, but mental.

A horse snorts to get his attention.

“The hell are you doing here!? You’re in the wrong room.” 

Eren gives the middle finger to the herbivore and turns his attention back to Armin and Mikasa.

He stands there awkwardly for a few seconds before sighing, kneeling down and pulling his hood off.

“Hey, Armin.” 

The blond looks up.

“E-EREN!?!”

Armin throws himself as Eren, which is the equivalent of smacking someone with a pillow. Then Mikasa joins, she knocks them both down to the floor.

Tears are streaming down their faces, their three collective faces, all of this eye juice is soaking Eren’s shirt. He sits up with great effort and tugs at the hem of his now wet clothing, the action causes Armin to cry even more.

“Y-yo-you h-hawn’t chAnged a-at allhalllallll D’:”

Mikasa lightly smiles at Eren’s confused frown while interpreting the blond hiccuping mess.

“He says you haven’t changed at all.”

“EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK!?” Jean vaguely gustures to the reunion party on the floor.

“Yeah Eren, I saw your corpse, you...you. . .you. YOUR LIMBS!!!” Connie screams and frantically waves his arms about.

“AHHHHHAHHHH EREN’S A GHOST, THE SUPERNATURAL IS REAL.”

“MIKASA AND ARMIN CAN TOUCH HIM, THEY’RE DEAD TOO.” The crowd shrinks back in fear, slapping each other to conform who’s alive. All but Connie, who strolls up to the trio and pokes Eren’s head.

“Am I dead?”

“NO you fucking moron, obiously the suicidal maniac is alive. Ghosts aren’t real.” Oof, you know it’s bad when Jean is the reassuring one.

Finally devoid of hiccups, Armin leans back to address the titan in the room.

“Eren, how are you alive? I watched you get eaten.”

“Ahh well, the thing is about that-”

Obviously no one believed his explanation.

“Aguh fine, does anyone have a knife?” Reiner hands him a small knife he keeps on him at all times apparently.

People silently stare as Eren slashes his skin and then regenerates it.

“Okay what the fuck?”

“Wait, so why didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Armin’s pure innocent blue eyes stare into his soul.

Shit.

Eren mumbles a half-hearted response under his breath.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I wanted to spend time with my human.”

Mikasa sends him a dark possessive look.

Oh boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter seemed a little rushed, I wanted to get shit moving and tie up any loose ends, so when I write chapter ten I can focus purely on what y'all came here for. Levi & Titan Eren.
> 
> No one came here for the plot anyway.


	10. "What is this? The 4th fight scene? And a recycled prompt!? Are you running out of ideas?" "...No -3-"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to spend a few more days fussing over this chapter, but I think I've kept y'all waiting long enough.
> 
> I present, the last chapter R.I.P
> 
> D':

Sunlight streams in through a cell window, hitting his bed perfectly, the prisoner stretches out in comforted bliss.

Ahh this is the life, trapped in a prison cell and chained to a bed. Eren had half jokingly asked if he could sleep with Levi, ya know so someone could 'keep an eye' on him without being locked in a cell, but that only got him harshly booted to his new living space with no sympathy. Sometimes his human can be such a meanie head.

He can hear distant footsteps coming down the hall.

Agggggggggggh, five more minutes.

When the steps stop at his door he smooshes his pillow over his head, it's routine to do this every time someone locks or unlocks his door, he knows the pillow is so extremely thin and low quality that it does nothing to dampen the horrific screech of iron scraping against rusty metal. He’s been tempted to clean it out multiple times, but he’ll have to ask Levi for supplies and frankly he’d rather eat his own sick than see the look on his captain’s face. 

There was once a time when he’d do _anything_ to please Levi, but that was when he was wrapped in his titan shell, as much as he hates to admit it his brain is the equivalent to a dog’s when he’s in there. Without his shell he can see everyone’s facial features and his brain is more capable of complex emotions, so no, unless he can clean out that bloody lock with fat titan fingers, rust will remain.

Once the door swings open, Eren angrily pushes past the guard and stomps his way to the kitchen. He’s allowed himself to get worked up at something so miniscule, fuck maybe he should just clean the lock.

Once he opens the dining room door he pretends seeing a certain someone doesn't improve his mood. Nu uh, not at all. 

When he sits at the table, the Levi squad makes polite conversation as normal, until some hoe scrapes their fork against a plate.

All that anger and frustration comes back to punch him in the face.

“AHHHHHHHHGH FUCK, LEVI I NEED CLEANING TOOLS.”

Levi gently places down his tea to confront the raging bull, cutlery being the red blanket, he should handle this delicately. 

“The fuck got you so pissy? I’d rather not deal with bullshit before the day’s even started.” The icy tone shatters any possible outcome of an overgrown baby throwing a temper tantrum.

Eren forces himself to cool down and rests his head in his hands while mumbling.

“The stupid lock squieks everytime it’s opened.” 

“Cupboard, middle shelf, clean it when we get back. I’m already in a shitty mood thanks to you, don’t push it.”

Anyone would wet themselves at the scolding, but the captain would be put in a foul mood anyway because of the mission today. He’d have to deal with the short tempered raven regardless of his outburst.

*****

Levi could have predicted the outcome, he really could have down to the tiniest detail.

Surprise surprise they got attacked by titans, but for it to get this bad an abnormal must have sprung a surprise attack. Sneaky bastards, they didn't even make it to the forest.

The formation is in shambles, somewhere in the middle he lost sight of Eren, he better show up soon, because Levi's down to brute forcing his dulling blades through titans’ napes to preserve them longer. He propels himself towards a seven metre with it's back turned, when he goes to slice the nape his blades get stuck halfway, frantically sawing through the flesh while looking for a safe escape. Levi's body jerks when his swords finally fling out the neck, he grapples on top of a nearby titan’s head and crouches down to plunge his blades into the titan’s eyes.

He equips his last pair of swords and wearily glances at his gas tanks, sometimes he wonders if he's the only one that actually kills titans.

A deep roar thunders through the battlefield, the titans making a grab for the human instantly whip their heads in the direction of what is unsurprisingly Eren in titan form. 

The shifter charges with his head low to the crowd, Levi uses the distraction to cleaningly slice the offending titans. He grapples from one to another, leaving a falling trail of dominoes behind him.

He pulls himself towards another titan, his blades are met with the smallest amount of resistance this time, he tuts in annoyance as he rides his titan down to a smaller class. Eren being a moronic loud mouth has only attracted more titans, he can just about make out the crackhead tearing through countless bodies to reach Levi. In return the captain alters his course to try and meet him halfway, he’s met with more and more resistance each time, both from his swords and his gas.

Using the last of his supply, Levi grapples to the closest 15 metre and strains his voice to scream.

“EREN YOU BETTER FUCKING HURRY UP, I’M OUT OF SHIT!” Immediately Eren stops killing titans and starts shoving them to the ground, he watches as the muscle monster pushes towards him with titans clinging onto his limbs.

Levi uses the last of his blades to chop off the 15 metre’s fingers reaching for him, whatever Eren’s trying to do he hopes things will be slightly easier now the twat Levi’s resting on can’t grab either of them, he grapples down to the junction where neck meets shoulder. 

By the time Eren’s finally within a close distance, his arms and legs are weighed down with titans. He takes another heavy step before lunging towards Levi, successfully capturing the small man in his mouth, his jaw tightly locks shut. The shifter feels a sharp object knock against his teeth then pierce his tongue, he lets out an apologetic whine.

"Fucking vile." The complaint is muffled through thick teeth. 

With his captain safely secured, Eren focuses on getting out of this mess.

Raising his left arm, he swings his fist down to smash the titan chewing his calf, his muscles split and pop open at the force of the blow. The titan clutching his arm collides with the ground, neck snapping and eyes rolling back lifelessly.

The 15 metre screams in challenge, it’s fingerless palms harmlessly bat at Eren’s face, attempting to pry his jaw open. Other titans see the action and stop gnawing on Eren, instead now climbing up the shifter’s torso, glutinous hands clawing at his face.

Levi feels the impact, repetitive hits to Eren’s jaw jolts his body, he manually wedges his grapples between the gaps in Eren’s teeth to keep himself upright. His gear is broken from being drowned in saliva which now pools at his waist, Eren's no doubt consciously not swallowing, the spit sauna ripples as the shifter lets out a warning growl.

Driven by rage for the bloodthirsty creature before him, Eren smashes his ungenerated arm through the 15 metre’s neck and rips it back out, his weakened bone breaking at the action and remaining stuck inside the creature's neck.

He’s pushed forward as a titan throws itself on his back and blindly claws at his face, Eren sends a silent apology to Levi as he holds the captain against his cheek with his tongue and crashes backwards, his weight squishing the titan. Hands still on either side of this face. 

The last titan begins crawling up his torso, with little energy Eren simply tears it’s nape out with his only working arm and shoves the steaming corpse off him. He pushes himself up and stares in the direction of the walls, then the closer forest. 

His attention shifts to the tiny splashing inside his mouth, he holds Levi more firmly against his cheek before swallowing a pool's worth of saliva. Gross.

Small grapples scrape against large teeth when the human is dragged from Eren's mouth, the man looks thoroughly shaken and soaked, without thinking the shifter licks the captain’s face in cornfort.

Somehow Levi’s face twists into a further form of disgust and possibly hatred.

“Do not touch me you putrid creature.” He spits out in calm fury, immediately regretting his tone and word choice at Eren’s utterly broken face.

Right, this is titan Eren, not Jaeger who can handle a verbal beating. Technically they're the same person, but Levi’s spent enough time around both to see the differences. Not that they’re subtle differences.

The raven sighs and runs his hand along his titans’ finger with a wet slap, he’s already filthy and Eren just saved his arse big time back there.

He sighs again and summons his inner ‘nice’ to eventually choke out,

“Oi………...thanks.” 

Eren purring happily makes the basic act of gratitude more bearable, an oversized tongue likes his face once more, this time he expresses his distaste silently. 

*****

They decide to camp in the forest for the night, Eren's completely drained of energy and their only form of transport home, but first it was urgent that they-

“-find a river and wash your gross slobber off me.” Levi emphasises his point by flicking spit at Eren’s face. The titan grumbles and drags his feet in the direction of flowing water.

While they travel, the giant rubs his thumb over raven hair and pale skin, smearing saliva over the only dry part of the captain’s body. Levi lets him, even though Eren did most of the fighting he keeps checking his human is still there and unharmed, the action seamingly calms the titan down. 

When they reach a river Eren restlessly looks around on alert, flinching at the smallest of sounds while hunching over Levi protectively. 

The breaking point was Levi ducking his head underwater to wash his hair and Eren freaks out, his hand quickly darts into the water to grab his 'drowning' captain, he’s met with a very unimpressed glare. Levi sighs when he’s put down and begins washing his clothes, choosing not to directly comment on the behaviour.

“Oi brat, that cave of yours nearby?” He wrings his clothes out while waiting for an answer.

Eren nods.

“Think you have enough strength to take us there?” He walks over to Eren’s steaming arm and holds his damp clothes up to it.

The shifter sits up and nods again.

“Oi don’t move, when I’m done here we’ll go there and get you out that shell.”

Eren whines in complaint.

“Shut up you need a clear head, right now I’m worried you’ll piss yourself with how scared you are.” He pulls on his now dry trousers and holds up his shirt, the steam intensifies to quicken the process, an offended grumble ruins the thoughtful act. 

“Uh huh because not scared titans immediately assume I’m drowning as soon as my face comes in contact with water.” He tsks at the wrinkles in his shirt as he pulls it on.

Eren huffs.

Levi tuts and wiggles on his damp boots with a grimace, the stench of titan spit must be deeply embedded into the leather by now, he adds it to the list of things Eren’s destroyed. He gathers his jacket and cloak, leaving his gear behind, that gear is never coming back to life anyway, he thought he explicitly told Eren NOT to break anymore equipment.

Levi pinches the bridge of his nose at the thought.

“Alright let's go.”

The raven's eyes widen in disbelief as Eren falls forward and begins to crawl with one arm. 

“Stop, fucking hell just stop.” He inhales at the painful sight in front of him.

“Right. Get out, I’ll lug your scrawny ass there.”

He motions Eren to stop what he’s doing before the shifter can even let out a whine of complaint.

“You’re in no shape to do anything and it’s getting darker, it would be quicker if you got off that high horse and get out.” When he’s faced with no response, his tone harshens.

“That’s an order Jaeger.”

Eren’s titan goes limp as he climbs out the nape, Levi holds his wet cloak up to the intense steam then wraps it around his shoulders. He glances at his jacket, no amount of hot air can dry the leather quickly, he feeds the sleeves through his belt so the garment hangs by his hip. 

Muscle ripping brings his attention to Eren attempting to detransform, in his tired state he can’t muster enough energy to rip his other arm out, that doesn’t stop him from trying. (And failing) 

Levi pulls a knife from his soggy boot and scales the disintegrating carcass, he slaps Eren to cease his struggling and slices through the thick tendons. 

When enough of the flesh is cut away, Eren yanks his arm free and tumbles ungracefully to the floor. His captain follows with more elegance.

With them both grounded, Levi reaches over to Eren, intending to throw him over his shoulder and travel like that, but the brat needs to give directions. He hates giving piggy backs because it’s stupid and childish, but it is unfortunately his only choice. 

When offered the piggy back, Eren’s cheeky grin is not faltered by Levi’s burning glare, to make matters worse his boots squelch everytime he takes a step. 

“I didn’t step on your fingers.” 

The captain flicks his head back, successfully hitting Eren’s nose.

“OW!”

*****

After they set up camp inside the cave, (Levi lit a fire, wrapped his cloak around himself and demanded he shut up and sleep) Eren lay on the floor very awake. He's not comfortable at all being outside the walls in his smaller body, especially with Levi with him, the dread sitting in his stomach only gets worse when he’s reminded his captain doesn’t have any ODM gear. 

He shuffles further under a hole in the ceiling, moonlight dimly coats his skin with a cold touch. His eyes are heavy but he forces himself to focus on the moon, the soft glow doesn’t burn his eyes like the sun would, sometimes Eren wishes he could live off moonlight when it’s quiet and everything sleeps. He doesn’t mind the chill that the night brings, his titan ability keeps him warm in any weather.

Taking a deep breath then releasing it, Eren’s muscles slowly start to relax, he watches his breath disappear into the dark interior of the cave. A second breath joins it as Levi rolls over.

He silently studies the man’s face, even in his sleep he looks displeased, his cloak stretches as he pulls it tighter to his body in his sleep. Eren notes how tightly curled the raven is, small body shivering when a gust of wind flows through the cave. 

With a caring smile, he reaches out to pull Levi closer, grey eyes snap open at the slight movement.

“Oi, didn’t I tell you to sleep?” Levi’s voice is rough and quiet, the last part slightly muffled as he buries his head inside his cloak.

“Yeah, but you looked cold.” He responds in a hushed tone, Levi looks at the hand tugging him forward with half closed eyes.

The captain grunts and shuffles closer, nuzzling his head into Eren’s shoulder.

“I’ll rip out your spine if you tel-auuuuuuuugh” The loose attempt at a threat is lost when he yawns against Eren’s shoulder.

Chucking while wrapping his arms around the human, Eren presses the raven flush against himself while tangling their legs. He feels rough hands reach inside his shirt and hug his torso, the temperature contrast causes his body to shudder, he scolds himself for not removing the cursed garment earlier.

Levi sighs into his shoulder.

“When we get back don’t bother cleaning the lock.”

It takes Eren a moment to realise the captain is referring to his outburst earlier today, he hums in acknowledgement.

“Sleep in my room, the night’s always freezing, the second you get smug I’ll kick you out.”

He smiles and nods, letting out a quiet "Okay.".

Eren waits for Levi's breathing even before closing his eyes and letting slumber claim him until morning, or afternoon. With no duties to attend to, both happily enjoy a late lie in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my fic, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope that I can write better longer fics with the more experience I get! 
> 
> It's been a blast, I feel like I'm watching my baby all grown up moving out for the first time. Goodbye my sweet child, may life treat you well.
> 
> :')

**Author's Note:**

> If you find any spelling/grammar mistakes please tell me. Expecially if autocorrect has been a bitch, fuck autocorrect.


End file.
